


My Kingdom for a Horse!

by bigcityschemes



Category: X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - College/University, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Bottom Charles, Brief Mention of Suicide, Car Sex, F/M, Frottage, Halloween, Hand Jobs, Holidays, Karaoke, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Mentions of past abuse, Misunderstandings, Modern Royalty, Pining, Semi-Public Sex, Slow Build, Thanksgiving, Top Erik
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-10-02
Packaged: 2018-04-06 18:16:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4231893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigcityschemes/pseuds/bigcityschemes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik, soon to be crowned king of Genosha, needs a break or better yet a vacation. After convincing his adviser to letting him escape for several months, he chooses a small college town to relax...and maybe party a little.</p>
<p>Charles is determined to graduate from college without any distractions such as getting married like half his friends have already or worse-fall in love. </p>
<p>-<br/>Basically a very loose 'The Prince and Me' Au </p>
<p>This is a WIP!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. chapter 1

    Charles is running incredibly late. He curses to himself as he desperately searches for a parking spot. Of course there isn’t any, and he can’t afford to waste anymore time trying to find a spot several blocks over because this is an emergency, so he pulls into a space next to a handicap spot and puts on his emergency lights. It technically isn’t a spot, just a space with lines that he’s lucky enough his car fits into, but that was the least of his concerns right now. He jumps out of his dark blue Prius and takes the steps up to the church two at a time.  
     The old wooden doors are heavy, so it requires a good pull from Charles. He tries to be as quiet as possible when he slides in and it closes behind him, but to no prevail as the door loudly slams shut and everyone in the church turns to look at him; including the bride and the groom. Charles smiles apologetically as he scans the crowd looking at him, some are trying to hold in their laughter while others look like they want to murder him. Among those who look like they want to strangle him and throw his body into the ocean is his best friend, and bride, Moira. Charles sucks in a breath and straightens his suit jacket to prepare himself for his walk of shame down the aisle to the altar and stands next to Moira as her man of honor.  
     He makes sure to move with haste down the aisle and ignore the looks he’s receiving and only focus on Moira, who looks like she’s about to internally combust. He tries his best to look as apologetic as possible and even mouths an _‘I’m sorry’_ at her and Sean before he reaches them and takes his spot next to her.  
     The priest only raises a disappointing eyebrow at him and clears his throat before he continues on with the ceremony, and Charles is able to let go of the breath he was holding. The rest of the ceremony goes on without a hitch and is rather beautiful, Charles thinks. He spares a few moments to really appreciate all the hard work they did to bring everything together. From the candles and the flowers leading down the aisle to the the bride herself, looking stunning in her Maggie Sottero wedding gown. Sean doesn’t look half bad either; he cleans up rather nicely, Charles decides. Before he knows it, the couple is saying their _I do’s_ and being presented as a married couple for the first time, sharing a chaste kiss and a loving embrace that leaves everyone in tears of joy, including Charles.

 

    Later that evening during the reception, Charles actually has a chance to speak to the newlyweds, and pulls them aside to apologize officially  
    “I can’t believe you were late to my wedding,” Moira shakes her head at him disapprovingly with Sean by her side, “you know we waited for you. We waited almost 30 minutes for you to show up and called you hundreds of times and then I thought that you weren’t going to show up at all…” Her voice wavers at the end and looks almost close to tears and Charles feels like absolute shit.  
     “I know, I’m literally the worst friend and man of honor ever. I truly am sorry,” Charles starts off. “In my defense though, Hank called yesterday after the rehearsal and had me at the lab all night and way into the morning with some experiment so I slept in past my alarm; not that that’s excusable but if you wanted someone to blame, “I’d blame him” he throws his lab partner/ roommate/ friend under the bus because that is what really happened. Moria and Sean just laugh and shake their heads  
     “You know, Hank showed up on time,” Sean states and gestures to where Hank is chatting happily at a table with some of their other college friends.  
     “Bastard,” Charles mutters loud enough for them to hear and with no venom, and they all laugh a little. “Well, I can’t apologize enough. Really, I’ll probably be apologizing for the rest of my life but if it helps a little…” Charles digs into his breast pocket and pulls out an envelope and hands it to Moira “I got this for you guys.”  
     Moira gives him a suspicious look before showing it to Sean and they open it together. “Oh my god,” they both exclaim with mouths and eyes wide open as they pull out airplane tickets to Paris.  
     “Oh my god Charles, this is incredible!” Moira hands the tickets to her husband and pulls Charles into a tight hug. “You totally didn’t have to do that!”  
     “Nonsense,” Charles smiles. “ You guys deserve it,” he explains as he pulls away only to be embraced by Sean now.  
“Thanks buddy,” Sean squeezes him tightly before letting him go and breathe for that matter.  
     “No problem, really. There should be your hotel reservations in there too,” Charles points to the envelope, “two weeks.”  
“I think I’m going to cry,” Moira half jokes while looking at Sean.  
     “Yeah, me too,” Sean chuckles.  
"Today has just been amazing,” Moira sighs. “You’re amazing.” she smiles warmly at Charles and starts to cry a little.  
     “No, you guys are amazing. Congratulations, I hope you enjoy yourselves. Sorry again for being late,” Charles gets a little teary eyed too. He’s going to blame it on being a sympathetic crier but he’s really happy for them, even if he thinks it’s a bit foolish to get married so young. They pull him into a group hug before Charles excuses himself, because he definitely needs a drink now.


	2. Chapter 2

Erik sits on top of his black storm metallic BMW S 1000 RR, and takes in the scenery before him: they are out in the country on a paved side street that is lined with trees but has open wheat fields behind them. He knows the location well, and knows that there are quite a bit of turns along it, which is one of the reasons why he suspects his opponent chose it. They are racing, and though there isn’t an official prize, there are bragging rights which Erik was currently  the holder of. Granted, as the future King of Genosha, Erik should really reconsider his hobbies, or at least that’s what his adviser, Emma, would say. But Emma isn’t here (thank god) and Erik really couldn’t care less right now. He craves anything that makes him feel just a tiny bit in control and rebellious. He would probably chalk up his new found need to feel alive with his impending (doom) ascension to the crown. 

Erik smirks over at a group of ladies and gentlemen conversing on the sidelines, waiting like Erik for his opponent to show up; he’s late. He catches the eye of a pretty brunette and flashes her his best smile before winking at her, chuckling when her face flushes red and she turns to talk wildly at her friend. He hears his opponent before he sees him, and before long he is joined in the middle of the road by a matching red bike. The race is more of a testament of who’s the better rider, not who has the better motorcycle. 

“Sorry I’m late your highness,” Azazel takes off his helmet. “Emma needed a million things again and was inquiring where you where.”

Azazel is Erik’s manservant (although Erik hates that term and would never use it out loud because he is much more like his friend than anything else).

“And what did you tell her?” Erik asks, though he knows the answer already.

“Busy,” they both say and share a laugh.

“Are you ready?” Azazel asks finally.

“Been ready.” Erik smirks “Waiting on you all morning, remember?” he jabs, while Azazel shoots him a dirty look, but puts his helmet back on with a smile. Erik puts his on too, and starts up his motorcycle finally, relishing in the hum and power seated beneath him. 

Azazel makes an arm gesture at one of the girls, who then picks up the checkered flag and makes her way in between them, a ways ahead.

“On your marks!” she shouts loudly, so everyone can hear her over the roar of their engines.

 

“Get Set!” 

 

Erik and Azazel rev up their engines in place.

 

“GO!!!” she shouts, and waves the flag as they finally set off in a loud uproar.

 

Everyone watches them race down the road only for minute before they’re scrambling to get into their cars and make it to the finish line before the racers can.

 

Erik tries to focus on the road ahead of him instead of the countryside rushing past him. He’s a little ashamed he’s not taking time to enjoy it as it properly should be but now is not the time for the scenic route, now is the time to kick Azazel's ass and brag about it till they race again. Speaking of Azazel, Erik spares a glance to his side to see if his friend was still next to him and to his surprise he was not, so Erik is left to assume that he’s behind him. From how fast they’re going though, he doesn’t doubt that he’s not too far behind, and Azazel is a fine rider in his own right. 

Erik feels like his heart is about to beat right out of his chest from the rush of adrenaline, but he’s maybe 5 minutes away from the finish line, so he speeds up. There’s a curve in the road and if he can just hit it the right way, he’s in the clear.

Except he doesn’t. Erik under-calculates how wide the curve is and takes it too sharp. The next thing he knows he’s sliding with the bike on his left side until he finally lets go and rolls to a stop before he sees his bike crash into a nearby tree. No less than a minute he hears Azazel come to a screeching stop and run over to him.

“Erik!” Azazel rolls him over so he’s on his back now. “Oh my god, are you ok!?” 

Erik, still in shock, can’t bring himself to say anything yet but he is in fact ok, so he nods his head yes and moves to take off his helmet and sit up with Azazel's help.

“What happened?!” Azazel holds him steady while surveying if there are any superficial wounds.

“Took the curve too sharp,” Erik finally get out breathless. “I’m ok,” he assures his friend. Before he can elaborate more on the subject though, a van rolls up, cameramen jump out and immediately start taking pictures and shouting questions at them.

“Shit,” Azazel mutters before acting quickly and hauling Erik up by the armpits.

“How did they even find us?” Erik shouts as he willingly follows Azazel to Azazel's bike and gets on behind him. The question is moot, because no matter what, the press will always find him. They were probably waiting for him around the corner and heard the commotion. Emma is going to have a field day with this one. 

Azazel makes sure Erik is secure behind him before fleeing the scene and Erik can only assume they’re on a one stop trip to the palace.

  
  
  


The royal physician is summoned immediately and goes to work with a handful of other doctors and nurses to make sure the future is alright and not suffering from any internal wounds. Erik wouldn’t mind it so much if Emma hadn’t just walked in.

“Do you have a death wish?” She asks “Are you depressed? Is there something going on that I should be informed about? Because I can not wrap my mind around why you continue to not only act out but do so dangerously”. She sits across from him in an old armchair and crosses her legs, staring intently at him as if trying to read his mind for the hundredth time. He should feel bad for making her stress as he does. He really does owe her a lot more credit than she’s been given; she has single handedly taken care of (if that’s what you’d call it) him and really the country since his parents died, although that doesn’t at all make her a maternal figure. Erik shudders at the thought of her being a mother; strict she would be and no doubt be raised properly but Emma exhibits no warmth a mother should have. She is all cold with her piercing white pant suits and condescending attitude. 

“I am not depressed nor do I have a deathwish.” Erik replies just as the doctors finish up and tells them he has nothing to fear, that he is in good health, although he really shouldn’t try something like that again. Emma beams at that and then excuses them before turning her attention back to him

“It hasn’t even been an hour and every news channel is blasting your accident over every media platform they can get their hands on. They’re questioning whether or not you’re even fit to rule this country, given your other previous incidents with you running around drunk in public, making out with everything and anything that moves, honestly Erik you are in fact the future king whether you want to be or not, unless you step down that is and then who will lead the country? mm? Have some dignity; I’m sure your parents would highly disapprove of your recent reckless behavior, god rest their souls.”

“Enough!” Erik practically shouts. Even after all these years, the death of his parents are still a touchy subject for him. Emma knows this but doesn’t care and actually uses the fact against him. 

She just glares at him and crosses her arms and waits for him to say something else. Erik lets the storm brewing inside him simmer down before continuing

“You’re right.” He starts and at that Emma practically gapes at him. Never would he ever claim to her face that she was right about something 

“Maybe I should get the good doctor back in here and check your head.” 

“No dont, I’m fine. I’m just simply agreeing with you.” the  for once goes without being said 

Emma relaxes and waits for him to continue

“I need a vacation.” He starts and Emma rolls her eyes immediately and leans her head on her hand against the armchair 

“No.” She simply states.

“I need to get away. There’s something about this place...it’s driving me insane-” He tries to explain but Emma cuts in

“You’re getting cold feet. You’re nervous about becoming King, I get that-” Erik shoots her a look “You can’t just run away when things get close and I know you know that.”

Erik stands and finally takes his black leather riding jacket off suddenly feeling too heated and enclosed. He goes to stand next to the giant windows and looks out across the impeccable lawn, avoiding Emma, though he hears her sigh heavily before getting up and making her way to stand next to him with the clicking of her heels. She doesn’t say anything for awhile but stands next to him silence observing the world on the other side of the glass.

“Erik,” Emma starts in thought before turning to face him and lean against the glass “...you’re going to make a fine king you know. If that is what you’re worried about. It’s more or less what you’re already doing...I know you’re young, but your father was the same age as you when he was crowned and so was his father before him. He was a great king, and I’m sure you’re going to be just as well...he’d be proud of you.” Emma finishes and Erik tries to control his breathing and avoids her gaze. He is usually overcome with anger whenever someone brings up his parents but what Emma said about his father being proud of him brings him grief and regret. Regret that his father nor his mother are here to help him with all of this among other things. They’ve missed out on so much of his life, 13 years to be exact. “I’m proud of you regardless.” Emma adds as an after thought and Erik huffs out a chuckle before his eyes begin to sting with tears fighting their way out at the sentiment.

“Thanks, that was oddly out of character for you.” Erik jabs and finally turns to face her and she gives him her best bitch face before giving him a small smile.

“Yeah well I meant, but I don’t know how long I’ll mean it if you keep all this nonsense up.”

“I still need a vacation.” Erik sobers up and gets back on his agenda which only causes her to sigh heavily and rolls her eyes again to face to window.

“No.”

“Sometime to clear my head, find myself again…”

“You can go on vacation after you’re crowned.”

“That’s more than half a year from now.” Erik retorts.

“Where exactly do you want to go?” Emma muses but still holding her ground.

“....I’m not sure yet. But definitely some place no one can recognize me. I just want some time to be...free” Erik winces as he says it because though he means it, he can’t help but to feel childish and silly saying it out loud.

“I’ll give you a month.” Emma says after a moment.

“Six months.”

“Ha no. We have a lot to do before for your coronation ball and the ceremony.” Emma shakes her head

“Five months then,” Erik fights back “I’ll be back in time for the New Years party.” he offers with a shrug. 

Emma takes some time to think it over before agreeing “Fine. But, you take Azazel with you even though I should have him fired.” she sticks her hand out for him to shake and he gladly takes it giving it a firm shake.

“Agreed and don’t blame him, this was all my doing.”

“Mmhm, I’m sure it was.” Emma smirks over at him before dropping her hand “But seriously, where are you even going to go?”

“I don’t know. What do normal young adults do?”

“I don’t know...uh, college?” Emma offers “But you’ve already finished all your schooling”

“Mmm yes, but that is an excellent idea.” Erik turns away from her and the window suddenly filled with excitement and goes to the old globe sitting in the corner of the room and spins it.

“You want to go to college on your vacation?” Emma asks now questioning his sanity and whether or not he really does have a concussion, but follows him to the globe.

“Not actually, but to be able to be around people my age would be nice even if it is just for the atmosphere.” Erik continues to spin the globe.

“You mean to party?” Emmer look unimpressed and wishes she never made this deal. “One ridiculous tabloid and you come home, understand?” She crosses her arms again and Erik just nods. 

“Promise.” He says absentmindedly before stopping the globe and pointing at a location.

  
“America?” Emma squints and reads while Erik smiles with full teeth.


	3. Chapter 3

“I can’t believe we have to go back to school already.” Moira moaned as she slouches into Charles’ couch.

“Well half your summer was wedding stuff and you know romping around Paris.” Charles wiggles his eyebrows at her making her blush as he sat down next to her.

“Are you suggesting I shouldn’t have gone, and stay here instead and do nothing?” Moira asked sarcastically.

“No because someone had to use those tickets…mmm on second thought maybe I should’ve gone instead.” Charles pondered but was then hit with a pillow. 

“Take that back!” Moira laughs.

“Fine, fine.” Charles laughs too as he throws the pillow at her instead just as Hank walks in.

“Hank!” They both practically shout at him, startling him a little.

“W-what?” He exclaims and pushes back his glasses.

“We are going to Alex’s annual back to school party, are you coming?” Moira explains as Hank puts his down his books and satchel. 

“Um no, that guy hates me remember?” Hank scoffs.

“He does not!” Moira laughs  “right?” she mouths at Charles behind Hank’s back. But Charles just shrugs, because he really doesn’t want to get into it right now.

“Regardless it could be fun and lord knows you need a night off.” Charles tries to help and truthfully means it. The kid could really use a break. Charles adores Hank but he tends to over work himself all in the name of science which probably explains why he’s a little socially awkward sometimes; spends too much time by himself. 

“I don’t think so guys. Thanks though, I really could just go to sleep” Hank smiles sheepishly at them and they offer him a knowing smile.

“Alright well we are off then, right?” Moira gets up from the couch and waits for Charles. He joins her shortly but does a quick once over in the mirror; he’s decided to go for a trying not too hard but still look good look with black skinny jeans and a charcoal v-neck, and runs a quick hand through his shaggy hair. He’s not really looking to hook up with anyone or anything but it never hurts to look good anyways.

“Lets go, you look great always.” Moira tugs on his arm and pulls him away from the mirror towards the door before giving Hank a wave goodbye. 

“Bye Hank!” Charles waves too before grabbing his keys and his phone.

“Stay safe!” Hank calls out but they’re already out the door.

  
  


“YOU SAID SEAN WAS MEETING US HERE?” Charles has to yell over the house music blaring, and then being shoved up against Moira.

 

“YEAH, BUT I DON’T SEE HIM.” Moira shouts back and steadies him before looking around for her husband. 

 

“ LETS CHECK THE KITCHEN.” Charles shouts and gets a nod from Moira before grabbing her hand and squeezing their way through the crowd. Sure enough, they spot Sean talking with Alex by the fridge and thankfully it isn’t as loud in here as the main room.

 

“Hey Hey!” Alex waves them over. 

“This party is crazy!” Moira latches herself to Sean's side once they join them and gives him a quick kiss.

“I do know right?” Alex bobs his head along to whatever song is currently playing “All this new meat.” He smirks while nursing a beer “Where's bonzo?” 

“You know he doesn’t like it when you call him that” Charles lectures Alex, but he just brushes it off.

“He knows I’m just messin with him” Alex shrugs and Moira, Sean, and Charles exchange a knowing look.

“Where’s Darwin?” Charles changes the subject instead.

“He’s DJing” Alex smiles proudly before turning around and pulling a beer from the sink filled with ice and other drinks, and handing one to Charles and Moira.

“Thanks.” they both mutter before opening and taking a quick chug.

“I think I’m going to go mingle!” Charles suggests and gives them a salute before finding himself back in the crowd of sweaty bodies. He doesn’t really know how Alex continues to get away with these parties, and really he should disapprove considering he’s technically serving alcohol to minors even if he says he only invites upperclassmen, they all know that the  ‘fresh meat’  find their way in anyways even when Alex hosts these parties blocks away from campus.  It’s a wonder the police never show up. 

Charles finishes his beer before he even makes it around the living room. He really doesn’t like beer but he wasn’t going to say no; not like he can find the expensive scotch he likes here. He finally makes his way through the living room and outside to the patio and decides he’s not really feeling it anymore. He quickly sends a text to Moira telling her he’s heading out, she probably won’t see till later and he feels a little bad about ditching so early but he could catch up on some sleep. This also means he has to walk home but luckily it’s not raining so he’ll be fine. He puts his phone away and has to fight his way through the living room again before he’s on the front porch finally and literally runs into a very firm and tall body.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Charles starts to apologize but then has to catch the stranger from falling over and down the steps. “Are you alright my friend?” 

Charles surveys the stranger and concludes that he’s drunk, but also strikingly handsome. That last realization causes his mind to short circuit as he gets suddenly lost in crystal blue eyes and distracted by a jawline surely sculpted by the angels themselves

“‘M fine.” the stranger slurs, and straightens himself using Charles as leverage. 

“Are you sure? Do you need to sit down?” Charles still holds him by the elbows to steady him.

“Mmm do you want to sit?...on my face.” the stranger smirks and that’s all it takes for Charles to snap out of drooling over this drunken stranger. Even if he is good looking, Charles isn’t about taking advantage of people when they’re drunk or vis versa.

“Ok friend, let’s have a sit over here.” Charles leads him to the bench on the porch “Is someone here with you? do you need me to call you a cab?” he asks as he sits him down.

“I’m fine” the stranger grits through his teeth suddenly angry and glares up at him. 

“Just trying to help.” Charles holds up hands up and backs up a step, he’s dealt with a enough angry drunks in his day to know when it’s time to leave.

But then the drunks face falls and he looks down, and Charles also knows what’s coming next but he’s not fast enough and then the guy is throwing up on him. 

“Damn it.” Charles mutters as the guy continues to throw up on his legs and shoes. He can’t help but awkwardly pat his back. “It’s going to be ok, you’re going to be ok.” he tells him reassuringly. 

“Oh my god!” A second guy rushes out the screen door and over to them. “Are you ok?” he asks and Charles thinks for a second he’s talking to him, but then he wraps an arm around the stranger's shoulders and looks him over after he’s done throwing up and Charles can’t help but be annoyed.

“I’m great thanks” He says sarcastically and they both turn to glare at him before the new guy notices the throw up all over Charles and his eyes go comically wide.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry.” the new guy apologizes and sounds convincingly enough for Charles that he waves it off.

“Are you his friend?”

“Uh yes.” the new guy says a little unsurely and if Charles was in a better mood and not covered in throw up he’d be concerned about leaving him with someone he doesn’t know, but alas he is not in the mood and accepts his answer.

“Great!” Charles grits out and leaves not bothering to say goodbye. He finally gets down the porch steps and tries to wipe his shoes on the grass to get some of the puke off but with no luck. He cursing to himself and accepts the situation and finally makes his way home with a plan to throw these shoes away once he gets there and wash his pants immediately. He can’t wait to tell Hank and Moira what a  great night he had. 


	4. Chapter 4

When Erik wakes up, he wishes he was dead instead. He has a raging headache and his mouth tastes like well, like he was throwing up all night. Which he was. He’s remembers spending most the night in the bathroom, how he got inside his bed is a wonder and a miracle. He’s pretty confedant Azazel helped him and reminds himself that he needs to give him a raise when they get back to the kingdom. 

He takes a chance on slowly sitting up and testing his nausea to determine if he’s going to be sick or not. Luckily, he thinks he’s in the clear, so he gets out of bed and notices the pain medicine and glass of water waiting for him on the night stand. Azazel's definitely getting a raise. 

Erik heads to the bathroom to change into his running clothes and brush his teeth before heading downstairs. Once downstairs he hears Azazel rummaging around in the kitchen and is welcomed by the smell of eggs cooking, which any other day would sound great but right now it makes him want to throw up some more.

“Morning your royal highness!” Azazel mocks him with a knowing smirk from over by the stove.

“What happened last night?” Erik grimaces at him and sits at the wooden table in the middle of the kitchen. 

“Well, you were very drunk and spent the night next to the porcelain throne.” Azazel chuckles “Are you going to want some eggs?” He gestures to the pan, but Erik just shakes his head.

“No, I mean did I do anything embarrassing that will show up on the morning news?” Erik drops his head into one of his hands leaning on the table while Azazel plates his meal and joins him at the table with some orange juice.

“No.” Azazel takes a bite and then thinks for a minute “Oh but you did throw up all over some poor fellow.” he laughs, and Erik just lays his head flat on the table in embarrassment. 

“Is that all?” Erik mutters against the table. 

“That I remember.” Azazel continues to munch on his breakfast “are you going for a jog?” he asks after he takes in Erik's attire.

“Yes.” Erik sits up and runs a hand over his face “Figured it’d help me feel not like garbage.” he explains and really means it. Plus, he is in habit now of running every morning and doesn’t want to break it. At that he gets up from the table and finds his shoes in the walk way.

“Do we have anything planned today?” Erik calls out to Azazel while tying up his shoes. 

“No, did you want to do something?” Azazel calls back .

“No.” Erik shakes his head even though he knows he can’t see him “I’ll be back in a little bit.” he calls out once more and grabs his keys before heading out the brownstone they’re renting. 

It’s been only a week since they’ve arrived at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Erik feels weird and restless without a packed schedule like he’s used too. Maybe they should’ve picked a different college town, he muses as he starts his run. He figured Harvard was prestigious and out of the way that no would recognize him, and though he’s not wrong, it still has been pretty boring since they’ve arrived. The only excitement they’ve had so far was the party last night, and he doesn’t even remember it. Although, he is supposed to be on vacation, and people are supposed to relax during vacations right?

Erik continues his run over the next several blocks before he runs past a bookstore close to campus. Gone With the Books bookstore was a little hole in the wall place, but conveniently next to a coffee shop. Erik has passed it everyday this week with the intention of going in and giving it a look; with how much free time he has he figures he could use a couple good books to read.  Erik pauses in front of the shop to jog in place and contemplate whether or not today will be the day he goes in. He considers how sweaty he is, but then also considers his need to do  something . That need trumpets his other reservations so he stops jogging and goes in. 

The door chimes when he enters and he’s hit with the pleasant smell of old books and coffee; presumably the coffee coming over from the shop next door , but a welcomed addition regardless. Erik takes a look around and takes in the rows of shelves which he doesn’t think go that far back, the tables around him filled and stacked with books, and a front desk with no one behind it. 

“Hello?” Erik walks in the shop more and calls out feeling awkward.

“Just a second!” a voice answers him from someplace towards the back, and Erik makes himself busy and takes a look around. He doesn’t have to wait too long till the person from the back joins him.

“Terribly sorry, I was just in the back. Is there anything I can help you find, oh-” the shop worker stops in his tracks and his eyes go wide once he notices Erik. “It’s you” he points to him with the hand not occupied with books. 

“um.” is all Erik can get out because he’s rightfully confused and stunned by the handsome man before him who is clearly scrutinizing him with big blue eyes and dangerously red lips. 

“I know you,” lips says to Erik bringing him back to the matter at hand. The only way baby blues could know him is if he recognizes that Erik is the prince of Genosha, in which case Erik should immediately leave and never come back, but before he can make his escape the guy continues on “you owe me a new pair of shoes.” he states matter of factly, and goes behind the counter to place his books down. 

 

“Um…” Erik thinks while the guy waits for it to click “oh! oh,  oohhh ” it finally clicks for Erik as he recounts his conversation he had early with Azazel. Azazel never mentioned that the fellow he threw up on was beautiful.

 

“I’m surprised you remembered,” the guy chuckles and steps back around the counter to join him on the floor again “you were very drunk.”

 

“Well I never forget a face, especially not one like yours.” Erik gives him a once over, clearly flirting with him, but once he makes his way back to the guys face, his smile is gone and he’s back to glaring at him. 

“Right.” the guy says shortly “Was there something I can help you with?”

Erik is half tempted to continue to flirt with him, but considering he looks like he’s about to get punched backs off and tries to think where he went wrong. It’s unusual for Erik to be turned down and actually starts to annoy him the longer he thinks about it.

“No.” Erik replies just as short “I was just browsing and it looks like there’s nothing here for me.” he states and the guy gapes at him, clearly understanding what Erik really meant before dismissing it and waits for Erik to leave. 

Which Erik does without even giving him a goodbye and decides to spend the rest of the day in a poor mood, and tries to forget about bright blue eyes and red lips.


	5. Chapter 5

“You’re both angels.” Charles tells Moira and Sean when they hand him his Chinese take-out. They are all gathered in Charles and Hanks living room for a celebratory early dinner on completing their first day of the new semester. The living room isn’t very big and they don’t have a table, so they just sit on the floor around the coffee table in the middle of the room.

“Mmmm We know.” Sean mumbles around a bite of orange chicken, and Moira hums in agreement taking a bite of her lo mein.

 

“Mmm did I tell you what happened at the store the over day?” Charles asks the group after a moment of silence, and they all shake their heads. “You won’t ever guess who came into the shop.”

“Who?!” Moira’s eyes go wide and waits for Charles to continue, but Charles has to swallow his bite first.

“That guy” Charles finally gets out and expected everyone to know who he was talking about, but they all look confused so he explains a little. “The guy who threw up on me.”

    “Ooh.” Sean and Hank say together not really interested after all, and go back to focusing on their food.

“What?!” Moira, however, almost shouts. “And you failed to tell me this?”

“I know I can’t believe I forgot.” Charles chuckles.

    “Well, what happened?” Moira asks.

“He just came in. I think he was running because he was definitely sweaty, but not like a gross sweaty. More like he’d just ran off a GQ shoot-don’t look at me like that.” Charles almost blushes and glares at the group as they all give him a raised eyebrow look. “Anyways, he was incredibly rude again, but this time he was sober so no excuse there.”

    “How was he rude?” Hank actually pipes in.

“I...I don’t know. He just has this air of arrogance about him. I’m sure he comes from some wealthy family and not that that’s a bad thing, but I grew up around people like him so-”

    “He’s probably in a frat.” Moira chimes in.

“Yeah, but the strangest thing is that I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before around campus and I know it’s a big university but by now you’d think I would have run into him before and it’s not like I’d forget a face like that.” Charles mutters that last part around a bite of his broccoli beef.

    “Maybe he’s a transfer” Sean points out and they all hum in consideration.

“Anyways, let’s hope that’s the last I see of him.” Charles adds as an after thought. “I have to leave soon for work anyways.” he checks his watch begrudgingly.

“Boo.” Moira frowns on his behalf. “We have some studying to do anyways.” She adds.

“Dito.” Hank nods “You won’t be missing out on anything exciting here.”

    “Thanks” Charles half chuckles. They finish up their dinner in no time and Charles bids them all a goodnight before heading to the bookstore.

  


    Erik isn’t moping. He’s going to be the king of Genosha, and kings don’t mope.

 

He is, however, _very_ **bored**.

 

    “Did you go for your run today?” Azazel asks and looks up from the newspaper he is completing the crossword in.

They’re in the living with Erik sprawled on his belly on the couch watching some trashy American soap opera, and Azazel is sitting on the chair next to him.

“No.” Erik mutters with his face smushed against the cushion. In fact, he hasn’t gone for a run in a couple days; he hasn’t moved from the couch in a couple days now that he thinks about it.

“You should go,” Azazel adds “would be good for you to get out.”

“You getting sick of me already?” Erik lifts his head to look at his friend.

    “No,” Azazel delicately argues back “I just think sitting around the place isn’t doing any good for you.”

    “You sit around all day.” Erik drops his head back onto the couch. “Plus, I’m on vacation and I can sit around, and do nothing if I want to...it’s relaxing.”

    Azazel huffs and rolls his eyes, “Do you want to go find a new restaurant for dinner?”

Erik huffs back at him now a little annoyed, not really at Azazel but because he feels like he’s acting like a child and can’t stop it. He does, however, turn off the TV and gets up finally.

    “I’m going to shower and take a walk,” He tells Azazel, who eyes him from behind the newspaper “You’re welcome to join me.”

    “No thank you sire.” Azazel smirks at him.

 

30 minutes later, and Erik is out the door just as the sun is starting to set. There’s a light breeze tonight as the seasons change into fall, so Erik has a light sweater on to keep a little warm. Without realizing where he was going, he soon finds himself standing outside the bookstore.

It looks exactly the same since he last saw it a few days ago, except this time he notices a sign by the door that he didn’t notice before that reads:

 

  _‘HELP WANTED’_

   

    A million thoughts rush through Erik’s mind, but before he can debate all of them he’s already inside.

Erik doesn’t have to call out this time for assistance because the guy from before is there to greet him,

    “Oh, hello.” The guy stands awkwardly by the counter. Erik is pleasantly surprised to see him again, but if he was being honest he was in fact hoping to see him again. Which, is half the reason he is deciding to apply for the position. The other half being, it would give him something to do.

 

    “You have a help wanted sign outside.” Erik jumps right into it before he gets too nervous, and backs out.

    Charles can’t believe this is happening right now. He curses Angel for quitting. He curses his boss for being lazy, and leaving it up to Charles to practically run the store and do the hiring.  He also curses whoever decided creating a man like the one standing before him was a good idea. Surely they did so just to taunt him; the guy was literally too beautiful for his own good, and way out of Charles’ league- not that he was thinking about them together or anything. The guy practically had legs for miles with a shoulder to hip ratio that made Charles want to drool and his dark hair looks like it was tousled from the wind today and has he mentioned that jawline before? Also, the light grey sweater he has on somehow brings out his eyes, and now he’s certainly distracted and even more surprised that he is back in the store and asking about the position.

    “No.” Charles blurts out without even really thinking about it.

“No there isn’t a sign outside?” Erik gestures to where it’s clearly sitting. “Or no because the position is already filled?” Erik tries not to get distracted by watching a blush creep up on the man’s face and trickle down his neck. He definitely tries not to imagine just how far south the blush goes.

    “Uh,” Charles bites his lower lip, and Erik follows the motion before he’s talking again “why do you want the position?”

    “Is this the interview?” Erik asks genuinely curious because he’s never done an interview before, and doesn’t know if this is the proper process.

“Look if you’re just messing around I’d prefer it if you didn’t waste my time.” Charles hates that he gets so frustrated around this guy. He hates that he feels like he’s back in high school and can’t manage a complete sentence around his crush.

“I’m not, I swear.” Erik assures him. “I really need the money.” He blurts out suddenly and immediately kicks himself. What’s wrong with him? He can’t believe he just lied about money out of all things. He feels like a total ass, but that must have worked because the man’s face falls into an understanding look.

“What’s your name?” Charles sighs, and feels worse about giving him a hard time now that he knows he must really need the job.

“uh, Erik. Just Erik” Erik replies dumbly and offers his hand to him.

“Ok, just Erik,” Charles mocks him, hoping to come off as playful and shakes his pleasantly warm hand. “I’m Charles Xavier.”

    “It’s a pleasure to properly meet you Charles.” Erik offers him a small smile, and Charles never realized his name could sound like honey in someone else’s mouth.

    “When can you start?” Charles drops his hand and stuffs it into his pants pocket still tingling from the exchange.

    “Is tomorrow good?” Erik offers and desperately hopes that tomorrow will work.

“Yes, I think tomorrow will be just fine. My shift doesn’t start until 4 because I have class- are you a student?”

    “No, no I’m not. Is that ok?”

“Yes, that’s ok.” Charles smiles at him. At least that answers that question. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He adds and scratches at the back of his head trying not to be too awkward.

    “Right. Tomorrow. See you tomorrow.” Erik lingers longer than he should before finally turning to leave, and walking out the door. Expect he can’t remember what time they agreed on so he goes back in and chuckles a little embarrassed “I’m sorry, what time do I need to be here again?”

    “4 will be fine.”

“Right. Ok. Tomorrow then.” Erik flashes him his best smile before slipping back out the door, and Charles is left standing alone with a dorky grin on his face. He can’t wait to tell Moira everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one didn't have a beta so im so sorry if there are any major errors. The POV also switches a little. I hope you enjoy! And thank you so much for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

Erik had assumed that the little bookstore didn’t generate that much traffic due to the fact that every time he was there it seemed like he was the only one. Boy, was he wrong.  He can’t believe he actually thought this was going to be easy. Now he understands why Azazel laughed at him when he told him he got a job.

    It’s not that Erik has never worked hard before in life; he’s had to do plenty of hard work before, but nothing compared to retail. To learning where everything is at in the store and dealing with customers, he now has a new found respect for retail workers and is rightfully exhausted.

“How are you hanging in there?” Charles leans over the counter at him as Erik walks up, and drops off some misplaced books he found.

“Wonderful.” He sighs and earns him a small laugh from Charles “I still don’t know where everything is at, and the looks I get from the customers makes me feel like I’m stupid.”

“Mmm they’ll do that to you, and it’s only your first day so don’t feel too bad. In fact, since we have some downtime the best way to learn where things go is to put them back.” Charles gestures to the very full cart of books they have to return.

“Excellent.” Erik nods mockingly. In truth though, he is a little excited to start this project because this would be the first time all day he’ll get a chance to really talk to Charles since he came in.  

 

“So like I said this afternoon, the store is set up by genre, and then within each section alphabetized by author.” Charles explains to him again. “It’s much faster with two people, and that we separate the books first.” He adds, and dumps some books on the counter for them to sort through first.

“So _Wuthering Heights_?” Erik holds up the book for help.

“Gothic fiction, we don’t really have a section for that, but I know where it goes.” Charles takes it from him with a smile, and holds up a separate book,

    “Guess.” Charles challenges him with _The Once and Future King_.

“Mmmm,” Erik thinks for minute before deciding where it should go “fantasy?”

    “You are correct.” Charles beams at him. They soon fall into a comfortable silence separating the books into piles stopping only to ask where something should go, or to comment on the choice of music that is playing. Today’s music choice is a 60’s French Pop mix. Because Charles usually has the shop to himself he’s used to playing whatever he wants, and Erik is now left to question his choice in music but doesn’t comment much on it.

    They’re almost done sorting when Erik comes across one he just can’t help himself with. He tries to put on his best straight face and asks Charles “So, where does this one go?”

    Erik is holding up a copy of the _Kama Sutra_ , and Charles has to do a double take and can feel a blush coming on. He shakes his head and tries not to smile, but he does try to take it from Erik only to have him hold it out of his reach.

    “Do we even have a section for this?” Erik flips through the book and then makes a low whistle at something he finds. “Have you ever...you know?” He gestures to the book, and Charles pretends to be scandalized.

    “I can’t believe you just asked me that.”

“It’s all perfectly natural and healthy.” Erik tries to say without laughing but can’t seem to manage it, and now they’re both laughing.

    “You are 12.” Charles laughs and snatches the book from him, and puts in a pile just as Moira walks in. “Moira!”

    “Hello darling,” Moira joins them at the counter and gives Erik a not so subtle once over “You must be Erik.” She shakes his hand with a wide smile and shrugs at Charles. Charles groans internally and wishes she would leave now.

    “Erik this is Moira” Charles introduces her regardless.

“A pleasure to meet you.” Erik says, but Charles can’t help but notice that he’s demeanor has changed from relaxed to more constricted with a perfect posture and a tight smile. Not like the ones he’s been sharing with Charles.

    “Oh,” Moira scoffs and drops his hand. “The pleasure is all mine. I’ve heard so much about you.” Charles loves Moira, but she has a habit of word vomiting at Charles’ expense. Now that he thinks about it he’s sure everyone in life does so, especially his sister Raven (thank god she isn’t here), and aims to drive him into an early grave. They seem to think Charles’ can’t flirt or handle himself, but little do they know. Erik shoots Charles a quick glance that Charles can’t read, but feels embarrassed regardless.

    “All true I hope.” Erik jokes, but the smile is still tight.

Moira just laughs a little, and Charles joins her but his is more out of awkwardness.

    “I’m going to start putting these away.” Erik picks up a stack of books and excuses himself from the group.

    Once he’s further away Charles turns to glare at Moira, but she just excitedly turns to whisper at him,

    “He is so hot. You weren’t kidding.” She half whispers, and though she isn’t wrong he’s still annoyed with her.

    “ _I’ve heard so much about you_?” Charles mimics her from before.

“What?” She half laughs. “I’m sorry it just came out, I got nervous.”

    Charles shakes his head and glances past her to make sure Erik wasn’t walking up on them.

“How’s it going?” Moira continues on.

“Good, he’s doing good. I don’t regret hiring him...yet.”

    “I bet you don’t.” Moira smirks at him.

“Did you need something?” Charles continues to glare at her.

    “Nope. Just wanted to drop by and say hi.” She continues to smile innocently at him. “I should be going though, Sean and I have dinner plans.” Moira checks her watch before offering him another smile.

    “Have fun.” Charles offers.

“Probably not as much fun as you’re having.” She jabs and turns to leave before Charles could berate her. “It was nice meeting you!” She yells out hoping Erik could her before waving her goodbye to Charles, and she out the door.  

 

Erik had found the aisle where the books go, but he’s irritated so he’s taking his time. Moira seemed nice enough; she was also pretty, but she called Charles _darling_ and that annoyed him. Of course Charles had a girlfriend. Beautiful Charles with his slightly over sized sweaters and smile that reminded him of puppies and everything that was right in the world, of course he was seeing someone. No wonder he’s flirting went virtually no where, Erik never had a chance.

When he returns he’s surprised to find that Moira is gone, and he’s alone again with Charles.

“Did you find everything ok?” Charles asks when Erik reaches for another stack.

“Yes.” Erik doesn’t mean to be short with him because it wasn’t Charles’ fault after all, but now he just wants to go home.

    “Is everything alright?” Charles definitely notices a change in Erik, and can’t help but feel responsible about it. He immediately misses the Erik before Moira walked in, and wants to get him back but doesn’t know how.

    “Everything’s fine.” Erik finally looks at Charles, and can’t stay mad when he’s looking at him with the utmost concern. “Just got tired suddenly.”

    “Mmm, well let me help you with the rest of these and we can get out of here.” Charles grabs some books and joins him out on the floor with a small smile.

    They manage to finish up, and close within an hour and a half without incident. They soon bid each other a goodnight before heading off in different directions, and Erik thinks as far as first days go, this one wasn’t so bad. Although he doesn’t have much to compare it to, he had a little fun today, so he’s going to call it a success. On the other hand, he did discover that Charles was in a relationship which is a disappointment, but that’s probably for the best. Not like he could have something like that anyways, so he’ll just have to settle on being friends. If he can manage it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again this chapter didn't have a beta, so terribly sorry if there are any major errors. POV switches again and I think I should start making the chapters longer. Anyways, hope you enjoy and thanks for reading! <3


	7. Chapter 7

“I hate this.” Charles mutters and runs a hand aggressively through his hair as Erik joins him at the counter.  Things at the store have been running smoothly all week, but it never fails to hear Charles complain about whatever he’s working on on their downtime. Erik assumes it’s homework, for what class he doesn’t know yet, but he’s about to find out.

“You’ve been complaining about this for weeks.” Erik leans on the other side of the counter, and tries to see what it is. “What is it?”

“It’s this bloody Shakespeare class.” Charles huffs out annoyed. “I somehow missed a creative elective, and it was between this or dance.” Erik gives Charles a sympathy laugh which Charles appreciates, but doesn’t help him. “It’s not that I don’t like Shakespeare either it’s just there’s...so much and my professor wants us to analyze and dissect everything. I’d much rather dissect a pig than continue to guess all the different meanings behind this, and then be told I’m wrong.” 

“Mmm…” Erik takes Charles rant in before reciting beautifully. “To die- to sleep. To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub! For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.”

Charles is surprised and impressed, but also slightly turned on because he never realized Shakespeare could sound so hot never mind that the subject matter is rather depressing. “I didn’t realize you were so well...versed.”

“Mmm.” Erik tries to shrug modestly but can’t help but smirk. He knows he just showed off, and he’s more than prepared to show off some more. “I could help you if you want.” He offers. 

“Uh that’s really kind of you, but…” Charles is about to decline because he doesn’t know if he’ll survive if Erik continues to recite Shakespeare at him, but he does need to pass this dumb class. “Are you doing anything after work?” 

“Nothing.” Erik replies a little too quickly.

“The coffee shop next door is 24 hours, I’d like to take you up on that offer if that’d be alright. I’ll buy you coffee.” Charles offers and Erik practically beams at him.

“That sounds great. I can get my own coffee though.”

“Nonsense, you’re doing me a huge favor and it’s the least I can do.” 

“Alright, well I’m going to finish up so we can get out of here.” Erik pushed off the counter and grabs some books.

“Right. I should probably help huh?” Charles packs his homework in his satchel, and grabs some other books to put away.

“If you want to. ‘S not like it’s your job or anything.” Erik shrugs playfully.

“Ha ha.” Charles mocks him and bumps his shoulder with his when he joins him out on the floor.

  
  


The small coffee shop isn’t very packed, but there are several people spread throughout who also look like students. Erik feels a little out of place, but then again he always feels out of place so he ignores it and focuses on deciding what he’ll have to drink. He laughs to himself when he sees that they have specialty drinks named after books, and thinks about how fitting it is that their bookstore is next to this and vice versa. 

Charles orders a hot tea and gestures for Erik to order too so Charles can pay for them both, but Erik hesitates.

“I told you I was buying.” Charles mutters to him and urges for Erik to make up his mind. Which he does but not before giving Charles a look; he didn’t realize Charles was so pushy. 

Erik ends up ordering a drink called the  Raven , which is a dark chocolate mocha topped with whipped cream and drizzled with dark chocolate sauce. Once they get their drinks Erik realizes his might have too much sugar but after a second thought he doesn’t care because he doesn’t know how long they’ll be there...and he’s a little hungry.

“There’s some tables on the other side of the bar.” Charles points to some open seating and practically man handles Erik over to the table.

“Pushy.” Erik chuckles, but goes along with it.

“Sorry, I know it doesn’t looked packed but blink and the table will be gone. Trust me.” Charles sets his drink and satchel on the table and they both sit. 

“So…”Erik starts after he takes a sip of his drink and waits for Charles after he takes a sip too. 

“Mmm.” Charles closes his eyes and hums in content at the tea. “Maybe be we can talk about something else other than work and my studies. Just for a bit.” he suggests and Erik couldn’t be happier. Even though they’ve been getting along just fine at work, he still doesn’t know anything about Charles. Charles realizes that this is beginning to feel sort of like a date instead, and he totally doesn’t mind. In fact, he should’ve done this sooner. 

“That’s fine by me.” Erik nods. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Well, this might be personal but I was actually wondering where you are from.” Charles hesitates in asking. “You have an accent I can’t quite place.”

“I’m from a small country called Genosha.” Erik tells the truth. He figures he’s lied enough to Charles, he can at least answer some things truthfully. 

“Oh.” Charles says wide eyes, but looks confused.

“It’s a small island by Africa.” Erik helps him out.

“Oooh. Sounds tropical.”

“It is in some places, but it has it’s fair share of modern cities. Beautiful cities by the coast and there’s always the palace.” Erik describes and starts to feel homesick for the first time since he’s been here. 

“You guys have a palace? So do you have like a king and queen?”

“Uh, right now we have a prince who’s about to become a king…” Erik explains and tries not to give too much away. Although he really hates this lying business and really just wants to tell Charles the truth. 

“Oh, that sounds exciting. Do you like him?” Charles sips some more of tea and genuinely is interested in learning about where Erik is from which gives Erik mixed emotions. He wants to tell him so much, but knows he shouldn’t.

“He’s alright.” Erik just shrugs and takes a sip from his coffee to avoid further explaining how he feels about himself.

“So whats the government like?” Charles accepts the previous answer and moves on. “Is it a total monarchy or?”

“Our government is similar to the UK's, but our kings and queens are more heavily involved and they have more power. Anyways, where are you from? You have a bit of an accent too.” Erik successfully deflects.

“Oh right.” Charles puts down his tea and chuckles a little. “It’s actually quite embarrassing. I was born here in America, but my family spent some time in England and my nanny was english so I somehow developed and kept this dumb accent.”

“That’s not embarrassing at all.” Erik reassures him.

“It is when people think you’re not from here, but it does have it’s perks when you’re trying to woo someone.” Charles winks playfully.

“That’s very devious of you.” Erik says with a straight face but his heart is fluttering from Charles winking at him.

“Oh please, like you’ve never done it.” Charles scoffs.

“Not that I can recall.” Erik plays innocent.

“Oh right, you’re usual form of flirtation is throwing up on them.” Charles laughs and Erik grimaces.

“Ouch.” Erik places a hand over his heart like he’s in pain, but laughs too. “You know, I’m still sorry about that.”

“Yeah, I know.” Charles smiles softly at him, and Erik feels like he’s falling but he’s also confused because he’s certain that Charles is flirting with him but Charles is certainly with someone else.

“So Hamlet.” Erik clears his throat and gestures to the satchel. 

“Oh, right.” Charles starts to pull his books out, and feels disappointed and confused. Things were going so well. Did he come on too strong? Ask too many questions?

Before they could continue on, however, someone is standing next to their table. Charles recognizes the man from the same night he met Erik. He’s a tall ginger, who looks rather stern but speaks very smoothly.

“Erik.” Azazel huffs a little out of breath, and looks back and forth between the two sitting. 

“Azazel?” Erik questions.

“You didn’t come home on time and I got worried…” Azazel explains and looks at Charles again. “I’m sorry, I’m Azazel. I’m Erik’s...uh, friend.” Azazel introduces himself and shakes Charles hand. “I remember you.”

“As yes, and I definitely remember you.”

“Right. Sorry about that night, I was a little intoxicated as well.” Azazel smiles apologetically. 

“It’s alright. Don’t worry about it.” Charles accepts.

“I’m sorry I should’ve called.” Erik jumps in irritated that Azazel came all this way to check on him. 

Charles knows why Erik is acting so strangely now. Azazel is his boyfriend. This was a mistake. Of course Charles didn’t have a chance with someone like Erik, and he reminds himself that he doesn’t date anyways so before things could get any more awkward he jumps in.

“I’m sorry, the fault is all mine. I asked Erik to help me with some studying and I didn’t realize how late it was.” Charles explains. “But, we can do this some other time. I think I can handle things on my own for now if you need to go; plus this isn’t due till next week.” Charles gives them both an out and hopes for both their sake that Erik takes it. 

Erik just looks at Charles, trying to decide what exactly is going on here. “Are you sure?” He asks him just in case, and Charles just nods approvingly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Charles says quickly and offers a smile to the both of them.

Erik hesitantly accepts and stands to leave, “Thank you for the coffee.”

“Anytime my friend.” Charles puts emphasis on  friend and hopes that it’s clear enough to resolve any lingering issues or confusion. 

Erik takes the hint and says a quick goodbye before following Azazel outside.

  
  


“Is that the reason you got a job? Do you work with him?” Azazel starts asking as they walk home.

“I can’t believe you came out to find me.”Erik crosses his arms, half because he’s mad and the other half because it’s getting chilly and his thin sweater isn’t helping any.

“What was I supposed to do?” Azazel gestures wildly and then continues in a hushed tone “you’re the future king of Genosha and you go missing longer than anticipated. You could’ve been kidnapped or murdered or something awful could’ve happened. You’re lucky I saw you through the window. Maybe call next time.”

“Fine.” Erik huffs but now feels bad he worried Azazel.

“Now stop avoiding my questions. Do you work with him?” Azazel tries again.

“Yes.”

“I knew it! I knew there was another reason why you got that job.”

“You don’t know anything.”

“I know that this is a bad idea.”

“What is a bad idea?”

“You romancing the book boy. We both know that that won’t end well.”

“I’m not romancing Charles.” Erik was at one point, but he really is going to stop.

“Looked pretty friendly in there. He’s certainly handsome.”

“He’s got a girlfriend.” 

“Mmhm, I’m sure he does.” Azazel shakes his head. “Did he tell you that himself?”

“No, but he didn’t have to. I met her.” 

Azazel just continues to shake his head.

“Can we just drop it.” Erik pleads.

“Sure...have you eaten?” Azazel obeys and changes the subject as they continue their walk.

“No, I’m starving.” 

“I made dinner. It’s probably cold now, but we can reheat it.” Azazel huffs and spares a glance at the stars.

“Thanks. I’ll call next time.”

“You bet your royal ass you will.” Azazel laughs and Erik almost feels better. Almost.

  
  
  


“He’s got a boyfriend.” Charles announces when he walks into Moira and Sean's living room. Their apartment is much nicer and bigger than the one he and Hank share, but it’s further away from campus so he hardly finds himself here except when times like this come around.

“Who’s got a boyfriend?” Sean asks with a mouth full of chips from their forest green IKEA sofa. 

“Erik.” Charles says exasperated, and follows Moira to sit on the couch.

“Oh no, what happened? How do you know?” She sits criss cross in the middle, turned slightly more to Charles.

“I needed help with my Shakespeare class, and it turns out that Erik knows a thing or two so I invited him out to coffee after work but it felt more like a date but then his boyfriend showed up all concerned and worried.” Charles explains the situation all under one breath.

“You asked him out on a date?” Is all that Moira got out of that.

“No, it was a study thing but it definitely felt like a date and that was partially my fault but you can’t blame me I mean we’ve been blatantly flirting with each other, and so naturally I thought that was the go ahead.” Charles explains more.

“But you don’t date.” Moira points out.

“I know.  I know .” Charles has a no dating rule. It started back when he was a freshman, and he decided he wasn’t going to get distracted from his studies and his goals like the rest of his friends. One night stands don’t count ,however, those have been so far and in between recently that his rule hasn’t bothered him that much; until now.

“So you were going to fuck him.” Moira also points out.

“Yes, well... I don’t know.” Charles says frustrated and leans all the way back against the sofa. “Maybe.” It would have been nice but also awkward because they work together, and this is why he doesn’t do these sort of things. He should be focused on his school. He should’ve just let Erik help him with his class and let that be the end of it.

Moira practically gasps, “Were you going to break your rule for him? Did you want to date him?”

“No, don’t be silly.” Charles says quickly, but he knows it’s a lie. He has considered it once or twice. Nothing serious, but an actual date would have been nice to find out more about Erik. He just randomly shows up in Charles’ life in an air of mystery that Charles can’t help but be intrigued. It also doesn’t help that Charles feels actual butterflies in the pit of his stomach every time he talks to Erik, or he’s around Erik, or he thinks about Erik; nevermind that they’ve only know each other for a couple weeks. It’s amazing that he’s only known him for such a brief time, and yet Erik has found a way to occupy almost every one of his thoughts. He wants to ask Moira if that’s how she felt around Sean when they first met, but that’s a whole other can of worms he doesn’t dare open and now he’s getting ahead of himself.

“I lost you there for minute.” Moira interrupts his train of thought and welcomes him back to the present.

“Sorry. I was just thinking.” Charles shakes his head as if to clear away all those pestering thoughts.

“What’s his boyfriend like?” Moira asks instead of commenting more on what Charles was thinking about, and Charles appreciates that.

“He seems nice. Tall, ginger, I think he might be older.” Charles shrugs.

“Mmmm so he’s into older men.” Sean chimes in, leaning over to see Charles past Moira.

“I guess you can say that.” Charles chuckles at the way Sean’s eyebrows shoot up.

“You’re too good for him anyways.” Sean adds disappearing behind Moira again, and goes back to watching the TV.

“Thanks.” Charles groans, but appreciates the sentiment while Moira gives him a pat on the shoulder. “I should go. It’s late.” He says after a moment of silence. “Sorry, I came over so late.”

“Nah, we were up.” Moira brushes it off. “You know you can come over anytime.”

“Thank you.” Charles smiles at her and gets up from the sofa with Moira in tow.

“Will I see you tomorrow?” Moira asks as she follows him to the door.

“Uh, yes? Maybe?” Charles turns to face her unsure. He doesn’t think they have any classes together tomorrow, but they usually run into each other somehow.

    “Oh! Before you go, I know it’s some weeks away but are you going to Alex’s Halloween party?” 

“Um I’m not sure yet. Yes?” Charles hadn’t thought about it, but he goes every year so might as well go this year too.

    “Do you know what you’re going as? We’re going as Danny and Sandy from Grease!” She turns back to look at Sean, who gives them a thumbs up.

“Uh, I haven’t thought about it but I’ll let you know what I come up with.” Charles chuckles.

    “Ok, I was just wondering. Anyways, have a goodnight.” Moira gives him a quick hug.

“You too, night Sean.” Charles waves his goodbyes and finally makes it out the door. 

At least he has something else to think about now on his way home other than Erik. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta, so sorry for any terrible major mistakes. I based the coffee shop next to the bookstore off of a place in Austin, Tx called Bennu. thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

Erik feels incredibly bad about the other night. He never did get around to helping Charles with his class work, so today after some hesitation he convinces Charles to let him help again after work.

“So Hamlet.” Erik begins when they sit down at the bar. All the tables at the coffee shop were taken, so they had no other choice but to sit on the high bar stools that were surprisingly comfortable. Charles got tea again and after some consideration Erik got one too, although, the  Great Gatsby sounded good.

“Hamlet is a drama queen.” Charles answers him as he pulls out his notebooks.

“Well, you’re not wrong.” Erik chuckles. “But what else? What did you think of it?”

“Uh...I liked it.” Charles really can’t think about it right now. He’s a little distracted by the way Erik is watching him, and the way the cafes lighting is highlighting different angles of his face. Charles is trying his best though. After the other night things have been a little awkward between them, and rightfully so. It almost seemed like they were avoiding each other at work, and so Charles was surprised when Erik offered to help him again. He took him up on the offer of course, but promised himself he wasn’t going to try and flirt with him anymore. This was strictly platonic. 

“That’s it?” Erik asks amused.

“Ah yes, well it was certainly better than Romeo and Juliet.” Charles scratches the back of head nervously, but earns a small laugh from Erik.

“Ah right. Well, again you’re not wrong. How about themes? Anything really stick out to you?”

“Um...well, revenge obviously...madness.”

“Mortality.” Erik adds and Charles nods along. 

“You know I have to be honest, I looked a lot of this stuff up on the internet.” Charles explains ashamed, but Erik just laughs.

“Ah, I see. So my work here is done.” Erik stretches and cracks his knuckles.

“I’m sorry, you looked so determined. I couldn’t say no.” Charles apologizes and forces himself not to stare at Erik’s beautiful hands, and certainly doesn’t imagine what those elegant fingers could do.

“It’s ok, I’m just sorry about the other night. Azazel means well, but could be a mother hen sometimes.” Erik apologizes too, but Charles just brushes it off.

“Nah, anyways...are you hungry?” Charles asks without really thinking. He is hungry, but Erik probably has other things to do; like go home and eat with his boyfriend.

“I’m starving.” Erik replies immediately which surprises Charles.

“Do you want to grab a bite to eat? There’s a diner around a couple blocks from here.” Charles points over his shoulder.

“Yeah, that sounds great.” Erik smiles and takes a big drink from his tea to finish it off as Charles repacks his stuff. 

  
  


They set off against the chill towards the diner in a comfortable silence. Occasionally they’ll brush shoulders, but Charles blames it on the fact that he can’t ever walk in a straight line and Erik doesn’t mind. When they come up on the diner Erik can’t help but comment on how it reminds him of  Nighthawks at the diner , which Charles agrees with, and claims that it’s one of the reasons why he likes coming here. Plus the food is good and cheap.

They find a booth near the window, and they don’t have to wait too long till their waitress greets them.

“Charles?” The waitress asks, standing by their table. She’s got on a pale yellow dress and apron which Erik can assume is her work uniform, but she’s strikingly beautiful and apparently knows Charles.

“Angel!” Charles is definitely surprised to see her here. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Costa Rica or something like that?”

“Yeah, I was but that didn’t last too long, the people I was with were awful, I never should’ve gone but I’m here now. I was surprised to hear that my old job was taken.” Angel explains and spares a glance towards Erik.

“Oh right, uh this is Erik.” Charles introduces them. “He actually has your job now.”

“Uh, awkward.” Angel laughs and they all make a  yikes expression at the awkwardness. “Nah, don’t sweat it.” she brushes it off as she pats Erik’s shoulder. “I really should be apologizing, I wouldn’t have had that job if it wasn’t for Charles.” Angel explains and Charles just shakes his head.

“Anyways, what can I get you boys to drink?” She redirects the conversation and pulls out her notepad.

“Uh, I’ll take a coffee.” Charles starts.

“Me too, and a water please.” Erik order next

“Oh, a water for me too.” Charles adds.

“Great. I’ll have those right out. The menus are by the napkins.” Angel smiles and squeezes Charles’ arm before heading off.

“That was awkward I’m sorry.” Charles leans in after Angel is not in listening distance.

“No, it was fine. She seems nice.” Erik hands Charles a menu and means what he said. Angel did seem nice, a little too friendly but that’s ok.

“So what are you thinking of getting?” Charles asks as he looks over the menu.

“Something breakfast.”

“Yes, good man!” Charles exclaims excitedly. “I could eat breakfast anytime of day.”

“Me too.” Erik agrees just as excited. “I hate the stipulation that you can only eat breakfast foods in the morning.”

“Yes! Me too!” Charles laughs. “So what will it be?”

“I’m thinking pancakes.” Erik thinks out loud and studies the menu.

“Mm good choice, I’m thinking the french toast.”

“Uh that sounds good too.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what. I get the french toast and you can have a bite.” Charles offers, looking up at Erik. “ If I can have a bite of your pancakes.”

Erik pretends to consider the offer. “I don’t know if that’s a sufficient trade off. Also, if you wanted pancakes you could just get your own.”

“I’m afraid that is all I have to offer.” Charles plays along and squints his eyes at Erik but he’s smiling and probably looks like a dork’ but he doesn’t care because Erik is having just as a hard time as he is keeping a straight face.

They don’t have an opportunity to continue though because Angel comes back around with their drinks, and sets them on the table with packets of cream.

“So are we ready to order?” She pulls out her notepad again.

“Uh, yes. Do you want to go first?” Charles offers Erik who just shakes his head. “I’ll have the french toast and can I get the hash browns extra crispy please?”

“Sure thing. How do you like your eggs?” She jots down on the notepad his order.

“Scrambled is fine, thank you.”

“And for you?” Angel turns slightly to Erik.

“I’ll have the pancakes and sunny side up on the eggs.” Erik orders.

“Awesome, I’ll get those out as soon as possible.” Angel smiles and heads off again.

 

“Extra crispy hash browns?” Erik raises an eyebrow at Charles.

“It’s good, I promise.” Charles defends his choices.

“What are you studying?” Erik suddenly asks, changing the topic. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked you.”

“Biology.” Charles replies and puts the menus back in the holder.

“Do you want to be a scientist or something?” Erik continues and pours two sugar packets into his coffee and one creamer.

“I did yes, but I’ve had a recent change of heart.” Charles explains mentally remembering how Erik likes his coffee in case he needs to know.

“Oh?” Erik watches as Charles fixes his coffee with two creamers and two sugar packets. He tells himself it’s not creepy to remember the way your friends take their coffee in case you wanted to bring them some sometime.

“Ah yes, I wanted to become a scientist and you know find cures for diseases, but I’ve had the opportunity to tutor on the side for some extra cash and I’ve discovered that I really love teaching.” Charles explains and Erik can’t help but notice how Charles’ eyes light up as he explains to him the joys of teaching. It’s a good look on him. “There’s something really rewarding in teaching someone something, especially if they’ve only had the hardest time with it, and then they finally figure it out and it’s just-” Charles can’t even describe it but it’s ok because Erik gets the picture. “Anyways, it’s too late to change my major seeing how I’m graduating in the spring, but my plan is to get my PhD and hopefully become a professor or something like that.”

“That sounds amazing. I think you’d make an outstanding teacher seeing how you helped me.” Erik means with learning the ropes around the bookstore but Charles can’t help himself.

“Oh right, with your reading problem.” Charles says very seriously and crosses his arms on the table so he can lean a little forward.

“Right, right, yes.” Erik mimics him and plays along.

“You know it’s ok, most people are illiterate well into adulthood and sometimes even their whole life. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Charles consoles Erik but has an afterthought. “I meant that as a joke but illiteracy is no laughing matter and I apologize.” Charles explains seriously, but Erik can’t help laughing a little.

“I know you were joking, but it’s ok I won’t tell anyone.”

“Why are you here?” Charles laughs but then deflects. 

“Here in this diner?” Erik questions, looking around.

“No, here in this town. I mean if you aren’t a student, I was just wondering what brought you here.”

“Uh, well…” Erik tries not to panic. He hadn’t really thought about a back story, and desperately wants to tell him the truth. So he does. “I’m on vacation.” 

“What?” Charles asks bemused.

“Um, yeah...I’m on vacation.” Erik repeats himself not really knowing how else to explain.

“And you chose here to vacation? How long are you on vacation? Wait. Did you lie to me about needing a job?” Charles now has a million questions, and Erik is totally panicking now.

“Yes.” Is all Erik can get out, but Charles waits for more. “I’m only here till the new year, and yes I did lie to you.” Erik winces.

“So, you chose to work on your vacation? Why?” 

“Um, I was bored I guess.” Erik shrugs. It’s not a total lie, but it’s not like he can tell Charles he lied to get the job to get in his pants. 

Charles needs a moment to think all this through. He should be angry Erik lied to him, but for some reason he can’t. Regardless of everything he’s really enjoyed his time tonight and just being around Erik in general and that’s mainly because he’s so attracted to him.  Dammit.

“I should fire you.” Charles says finally.

“I wouldn’t blame you.” Erik nods and waits for Charles to do something dramatic like actually fire him or walk out, or both. 

“Do you want to keep working?” Charles asks instead.

“Um…”

“The truth is, the holiday season is around the corner and you already know the store and I would hate to find and train someone else.” Charles explains.

“Well, if you’re not going to fire me then I’ll stay.”

“I really should. I should be angry with you right now but can’t bring myself to be. I’m going to blame it on the fact that I’m tired.” Charles rolls his eyes but gives Erik a small smile.

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well I’ll have to find some way you can make it up to me.” Charles meant the payment to be work related but it came out suggestively. He was hoping Erik didn’t notice, but when he looks back at Erik he’s smirking at him.

“Not like that.” Charles can feel himself blushing and hates it. Erik just chuckles and holds his hands up in defense just as Angel comes around with their food.

“Is there anything else I can get you guys?” Angels asks just as she’s about to leave. They shake their heads no after examining their food.

“Cool, I’ll swing back around in a little bit and bring out some more coffee, alright?” She gives them one more smile before leaving them alone again.

“This looks great.” Charles exclaims and starts cutting into his french toast, but then he’s being handed half a pancake.

“A peace offering.” Erik states and drops it on his plate. 

“Touching really, but you’re not off the hook that easily.” Charles eyes him, but cuts into the pancake and then moans into his bite. Erik watches dumbfound; he never considered pancakes to be pornographic before.

“This was such a good idea.” Charles says innocently and eats more of his peace offering. He then cuts more than half of one of his french toasts and drops it on Erik’s plate.

“What’s that for?” Erik gestures to the toast with his fork suspiciously. 

“I told you, you could have some.” Charles shrugs and pours a lot of syrup on his toast. Scratch that. He’s practically drowning the poor toast in syrup. Erik is glad he got a piece before they were desecrated.   

“Would you like some toast with your syrup?” Erik comments as he continues to watch Charles pour.

“You do not get to comment.” Charles finally stops pouring and digs in; again with the moaning. He doesn’t mean to be so vocal, but he’s really hungry and this is the best thing he’s had all day. 

 

Erik’s brain is short circuiting. If Charles this vocal about food, he wonders what he’s like in bed. Now is not the time to be thinking about that though, so he starts in on his own food. Maybe Charles had the right idea though because this is really good. He’s half tempted to moan and groan himself but he doesn’t want to make it weird, so he just quietly enjoys his breakfast.

 

“Do you want some more of my pancakes?” Erik asks after eating as much as can, but Charles just shakes his head no.

    “No, thank you. I think I’ve eaten way too much.” Charles leans back and surveys their hard work and empty plates.

“Me too.” Erik grimaces, but feels great and sleepy. He takes a look at his watch and discovers that it’s past midnight; good thing he doesn’t have to work tomorrow.

    “I didn’t realize how late it was getting.” Charles comments after looking at his watch too.

“Me either, but it’s fine.” Erik brushes it off and was about to look around for Angel, but she’s already there.

    “You boys still doing ok? Anything else I can get you?”

“No, I think we’re finished actually.” Charles replies and Erik nods along.

“Cool, did you want some more coffee or the check?”

“Check is fine.” Erik answers this time.

“You guys want it split or-”

“All on one is fine.” Erik says quickly before Charles can even get a word out.

“Ok, well here's this then.” Angel pulls the check out of her pocket, and hands it to Erik. “Just let me get some of these plates out of the way.” She starts to clear the table, and turns to give Charles a look that Erik can’t see. It’s a is this a date? look, which Charles just clears his throat and shakes his head. 

“You can keep the change.” Erik hands back the black folder.

“Thanks. Come see me again sometime.” Angel smiles at the both of them. “Have a good night.” She not so subtly winks at Charles, which he chooses to ignore and instead address the fact that Erik bought him dinner.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Do what?” Erik plays dumb.

“Buy me dinner.” Charles huffs. Friends buy each other dinner all the time. This wasn’t a date, he reminds himself.

“Well, it’s already done, so no use arguing about it.” Erik smirks and slides out of the booth. He waits for Charles, who rolls his eyes at him before sliding out too and they head outside. It’s gotten considerable colder since they’ve been inside, so they both have to wrap themselves up in their thin jackets as they stand around on the sidewalk.

“I’m this way.” Erik nods his head in the opposite direction that Charles was just about to take.

“Right. Um, ok well thank you for dinner even if you didn’t really have to do that.”

“I know...I did lie to you, so think of it as another peace offering.”

“Right.” Charles lets out a small laugh. “Well we’re both off tomorrow surprisingly, so I guess I’ll see you on Sunday.”

“Yes, I’ll see you on Sunday.” Erik says, but they’re still standing awkwardly by each other almost as if wanting to say something else or not really wanting to part just yet, or both. 

Charles finally manages to tear his gaze away from Erik, not realizing that they were staring at each other. “Well, have a goodnight.” He says quickly and turns to leave.

“You too.” Erik calls after him and turns to leave.  ‘Smooth, Erik. Very smooth.’ He kicks himself mentally for being awkward, but doesn’t get very far because Charles is calling after him.

“Ah Erik!” Charles turns back around and half jogs to meet Erik back where they were standing. “What are you doing tomorrow?” He asks. He really shouldn’t be doing this.

“Um nothing.” Erik replies surprised that he’s asking.

“There’s an art gallery opening up tomorrow on campus. Nobody else will go with me, so I was wondering if you’d like to go.”

“Um, yeah. Yes that sounds great.” Erik beams at him, and probably replies too quickly but he doesn’t care.

“Great. Great. Um, oh you know I don’t think you have my number.” Charles fumbles to get the words out and feels stupid, but it was true.

“Oh right.” Erik pulls out his phone and hands it to Charles. He hopes he doesn’t comment or notice his lack of contacts on the phone, it’s a burner they picked up so really the only person he has in it is Azazel. 

Charles doesn’t notice and puts his number in before handing it back to Erik. “I’ll text you later the location and what time we should meet.”

“Sounds good.” Erik smiles and pockets his phone. “It’s a date.” He blurts out, and immediately wants to punch himself.

“Uh yeah…” Charles brain short stops short for a minute. “But, like a friend date.”

“Yeah, of course.” Erik replies quickly.

“Great, ok see you tomorrow.” Charles bites the bottom of his lip nervously as he waits for Erik to respond.

“Yes, see you tomorrow then.” Erik doesn’t hesitate any longer in responding and they say one more goodnight before departing again. 

Once Erik is around the corner he puts his face in hands and quietly groans at himself before running his hands through his hair. He feels so dumb, but also really excited about tomorrow. 

Charles on the other hand, is silently cursing himself. ‘A friend date, really?’ What a stupid thing to say. There was no use in beating himself up over it though, but the friend date was happening and Charles would be lying if he said he wasn’t looking forward to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta again, sorry! Also sorry it might be a little long. Anyways I hope you enjoy and thank you so much for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

Because of parking, they agreed to meet at Charles’ apartment and then walk to the art museum. Charles at this point is trying to wait patiently, but he’s so nervous he can’t sit still. He sits down only get up to look out the window, or check his hair and appearance in the mirror, and then sits back down again. Erik isn’t late or anything; he’ll probably be on time, but the anticipation is killing him. He’s aggressively reminding himself that this isn’t an actual date, that they’re just hanging out like they did last night and the time before. Except he’s made sure to wear his best sweater, the blue one that brings out his eyes and his nice pants that make his butt look good.  It might not be a date, but he’s still allowed to look good, right?  He asks himself, but thinking about it now he feels a bit over dressed and considers changing.

“You look just fine, stopping being nervous.” Hank tells him from the other side of the couch. Apparently he asked that out loud.

“Oh.” Charles blushes and looks away from him. “I didn’t realize I asked that out loud, sorry.”

“What’s the deal anyway? You’ve already said it wasn’t a date like a hundred times, why are you still nervous?” Hank asks.

“Uh...I don’t know. We’re just friends, and this is just a ‘friend date’,” Charles uses air quotes “but it really doesn’t feel like it. It honestly feels like an actual date.”

“You could always call it off.” Hank suggests. “I thought you said he had a boyfriend?”

“He does.” Charles grimaced.

“Does this make you the other woman then?” Hank smirks.

Charles throws a pillow at him, but laughs. “I’m not.”

Hanks about to add on to that, but then there’s a knock at the door. Charles hesitates getting up, but then Hank is pushing him with his feet off the couch. 

“Ok, geez.” Charles gets up and straightens his sweater before making it across the living room, and opening the front door.

Nothing could have prepared Charles for how incredibly delicious Erik looks. He’s got on a black leather motorcycle jacket, with a helmet under his arm, and dark tight jeans, and his cheeks are a bit pink from the cold, and wait.  He drives a motorcycle?

Charles groans internally just imagining Erik on a motorcycle, but only for a quick second and then regains his composure. It’s only a friend date. “Hey.” He manages to get out.

“Hey.” Erik not so subtly gives Charles a once over. His prep talk about remaining cool and composed on the way over goes out the window because he didn’t anticipate Charles looking so good. He opens his mouth to stupidly comment on it before he can stop himself, but then there’s a tall kid with glasses standing behind Charles.

“Hey!” Hank joins them by the door. He figures now’s a better time than any to meet the much talked about  ‘Erik’ , and see what the fuss is about. He’s not disappointed. Though he’s not his type, he’s definitely something to be fussed over.  

 

“Oh, uh Erik this is my close friend and roommate Hank.” Charles introduces them as they shake hands.

“It’s good to meet you.” Hank smiles politely. 

“A pleasure.” Erik nods and smiles at him. They all end up standing awkwardly around each other by the door until Charles remembers that they’re actually supposed to be leaving.

“Right, so just let me get my coat.” Charles points over to someplace inside the apartment and scurries off, leaving Erik and Hank by the door alone.

“So...you guys are going to the art museum?” Hank tries to fill the silence.

“Yes.” Erik nods, but then asks: “How do you know Charles?”

“Oh, um…” Hank’s a little taken back by the suddenness of the question. “Class. We were lab partners.”

“Ah.” Erik accepts the answer with a nod, but then they fall back into an awkward silence until Charles reappears. 

“All ready to go?” Charles breaks the awkwardness, now wrapped up in a warm black jacket and dark blue scarf. 

Erik reminds himself that grown men aren’t supposed to look that adorable, and nods. “Oh, can I leave my helmet here?” He asks, remembering he’s still holding the thing.

“Yes of course.” Charles hands it to Hank and pushes Erik out the door finally. “See you later Hank!” He calls out as they leave.

“Make good choices!” Hank yells after them.

 

“Hank didn’t want to come with us?” Erik asks as they descend down the flight of stairs in Charles’ apartment building.

“No he’s got some studying to do, as always.” Charles explains with a wave of his hand, and Erik leaves it as that. One more flight down and they’re finally outside. “Wow, it’s a bit cold today.” Charles huffs, and stuffs his hands in his pockets. 

“Mmhm, I should’ve brought a thicker jacket.” Erik laughs as they start walking towards the art museum. 

“Is that the only jacket you have?” Charles laughs at him. “You know it’s only going to get colder.”

“I am completely unprepared for this.” Erik confesses.

“Doesn’t get that cold where you’re from I take?”

“Not that close to the equator.”

“We’ll have to find you a better jacket some time if you’re going to survive the winter.”

“Thanks.” Erik chuckles.

“So you drive a motorcycle?” Charles can’t help but touch on the topic. It’s been plaguing him since Erik showed up on his doorstep. 

“I do.”

“Do you like it?”

“I absolutely love it...have you never been on a motorcycle before?” Erik asks with amusement in his eyes.

“Oh no. No, I uh have not had the privilege to do so.” Charles stumbles a bit embarrassed for some reason.

“I’ll have to give you a ride sometime.” Erik says innocently enough, but then realizes how that sounded. Instead of backtracking, however, he uses it to his advantage. “And then we’ll go for one on the motorcycle.”

Charles gapes at him, scandalized and blushes. “You’re terrible.” He points at him, but chuckles.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it.” Erik shrugs smugly. He’s beginning to develop a thing for whenever Charles blushes. It’s such a good look on him. Compliments his already impossible red lips. “No, really though. I’ll take you out sometime on it. It’s really great, just you and the open road. Completely free.”

“I suppose…” Charles agrees, but with hesitation. He does remember what else he wanted to talk to him about. “So what exactly do you do in Genosha?”

“Uh…” Erik wasn’t expecting this sort of question, but after last night he should’ve expected it. “I work for the Royal family.... security.” He lies through his teeth and avoids looking directly at him, focusing instead on the lovely orange and reds the leaves on the trees have changed to.

“Oh nice. You have such a long holiday time. The benefits must be good.”

“Uh yeah, you know. I had a lot of sick time saved up too, so I just used it all at once.” Erik winces. It’s such a terrible lie.

“That’s great.” Charles falls for it though, so he couldn’t have been that bad of a liar. It does continue to make him feel like a bad person though. “So I’m guessing you wanted to see some snow, and enjoy the cold weather for once.”

“Exactly.” Erik nods quickly. Luckily they don’t have to stay on the subject any longer because they’re finally at the museum. Charles pays for them both, and doesn’t take no for an answer. He argues that he gets a discount because he’s a student, which Erik has no choice but accept.

 

Once inside, Erik is surprised to find the place actually full with other people. They start on the first floor and shuffle from painting to painting along with everybody else. Though the room is filled with light chatter, Erik and Charles remain mostly silent. Erik enjoys art as much as the next guy, but what he’s really enjoying is watching Charles. Charles’ level of concentration has only increased as they go from one painting to the other. He’s also unconsciously leaning back with one arm crossed over his chest and the other touching his mouth in typical art viewing fashion. Which of course is making Erik laugh on the inside. 

“What do you think of this one?” Charles asks after finally catching Erik watching him.

Erik’s not an art critic, and nor does he pretend to be. He likes classical paintings and some modern ones, but knows next to nothing on how to properly judge any of them. “I have no idea. I was hoping you knew more about this than I did.” Erik confesses.

“I don’t either.” Charles tries to contain his laughter with his hand. Charles knows a thing or two about some famous paintings, but has no idea what to make of this. He’s just thankful Erik is just as lost as he is. The paintings aren’t terrible. There’s just a lot going on, and yet nothing at all. “Well, I think these definitely are supposed to make you feel something. So what do you feel?” Charles tries again.

Erik scrunches up his face in concentration and stares at the painting. It’s a lot of black, and green, and some red. It feels a bit depressing compared to the other ones, and also feels a bit-

”Constipated.” Erik gets out very seriously, but Charles laughs out loud and immediately has to cover his mouth with his hand in embarrassment. 

“I can’t believe you just said that.” Charles giggles and Erik can’t help but join him.

“Well what do you think of it then?”

“I don’t know. Same I suppose.” Charles clears his throat and forces himself to stop laughing. “I’m not really feeling these.” He finally admits looking around at all the other ones.

“Oh thank god. Me either.” Erik agrees, thankful Charles said something first. 

 

They’re both ready to leave, but Charles feels like he’s been cheated out of his time with Erik so he tries to come up with something they could do. “We could go back to my apartment and hang out if you want. If you don’t have anything else to do, I mean. I don’t want to take up your time in case you have other things to do today.”

“I’m free all day.” Erik smiles, a little giddy that Charles wants to keep hanging out with him. 

“Great! Let’s head back” Charles says a little too excitedly, and leads them out of the building. They make it back to the apartment in no time, but now Charles has to come up with something to do. Hank is nowhere in sight, and is probably at the library, leaving them completely alone. They can’t just sit around right? His brain can think of a couple things they could do, but with their clothes off except this is not that kind of date. This is the friend kind. He reminds himself and is about to suggest that they could watch a movie when Erik says something first.

“Do you want to go on that ride?” Erik asks nervously.

“On your motorcycle?” Charles asks eyes wide and surprised. He didn’t really think Erik would keep good on his promise for some reason. 

“No on my dick.” Erik laughs, although wouldn’t object of course if that’s where this is heading. He immediately regrets saying it because even though Charles chuckles, he’s looking awkwardly away and then he’s reminded yet again of Charles’ relationship with Moira. He mentally beats himself up, and tells himself to rein it in. “Yes, I mean the motorcycle.”

 

“Where do you want to go?” Charles asks trying to compose himself. Erik is making this friend date really hard. He wonders if he’s this forward and flirty with all his friends. He also wonders if maybe Erik and Azazel have some type of open relationship or something, which would explain a lot. If Charles were a lesser man, he would’ve hopped on that a long time ago.

 

“It’d be a surprise.” Erik winks and picks up his helmet from the living room table. 

“Ok, but nowhere crazy. I’d also like to come back in one piece.” Charles follows him outside his apartment again, and makes sure to lock up.

“I promise.” Erik smirks up at him from his spot on the stairs.

When they make it to the parking garage, Erik introduces Charles to his black BMW R NINE T.

“You sure this is safe?” Charles points to the bike. He doesn’t know anything about motorcycles, and this one is very nice, and very Erik, but his heart is still trying to beat out his chest. Erik just laughs and lifts his leg over the bike to straddle it.

“You get the helmet.” Erik hands Charles the helmet, and starts the bike.

Charles just looks at the bike and then back at the helmet, completely frozen. 

“Oh c’mon. Don’t you trust me?” It doesn’t take a genius to see that Charles is very nervous about this, so Erik tries his best to convince him one more time but then he’ll leave it alone if he really doesn’t want to. “Hey, I won’t let anything happen to you.” He tells him softly and earnestly. “I promise.”

Charles lets out a heavy sigh and groans. He can’t say no to that, and suddenly feels warm and light headed at Erik’s sincere promise. “Ok, but you don’t have a helmet.”

“I’ll be fine.” Erik smiles at him and gestures for him to hop on. 

Charles realizes that he has another dilemma once he’s seated behind Erik on the bike, with the helmet on.  Where does he put his hands?  He contemplates the shoulders or maybe his hips, but then Erik is helping him out. 

“You’re going to want to hold on tight.” He chuckles over his shoulder at him, and grabs Charles’ wrists so he can wrap them across his own chest. The action also pulls Charles completely flush against Erik’s back, and he’s never been more grateful for a helmet hiding his face because he’s definitely blushing hard now. He doesn’t think he’s ever been this close to Erik before. This position is teetering on being intimate with the way that Charles can feel every hard plane on Erik’s body, the warmth radiating off him, and most importantly his heartbeat underneath Charles’ palm.

“You ready?” Erik calls back over his shoulder. Charles can’t really find his voice right now due to nerves and the fact that he’s more focused on the rise and fall of Erik’s chest and the way he smells like leather and something earthy and almost spicy; so he just shakes his head. Erik accepts that as his answer and kicks off the ground, setting the bike in motion. 

They’re still in the parking garage and not moving very fast but Charles already has a death grip on Erik, which he doesn’t mind but definitely has him laughing. Charles knows he’s laughing at him and should be salty about it, but feeling Erik’s laugh rumble into his own chest is a weird yet pleasant feeling. 

Once they get out of the garage and out onto the main roads, Charles starts to see the appeal. There’s nothing separating them from the outside world like a car would, and he is already wishing they could go faster. He soon gets his wish when he realizes that they’re heading to Boston as they merge onto a faster road to get them to the other city. Charles just hangs on and watches the scenery pass them by. The whole experience is exhilarating, but eventually over too soon for Charles’ liking. Charles is pleased to see, however, where Erik’s taken him when they find a parking spot.

“Ah! The ocean!” Charles reluctantly lets go of Erik, and takes his helmet off. They both get off the bike and Charles can’t help but laugh looking at Erik’s wind blown hair. 

“Ha ha.” Erik mocks him, and points to Charles hair. “You have helmet hair.”

Charles keeps laughing, but reaches up to flatten Erik’s hair down. Erik helps him out by ducking his head a little so Charles can reach. Standing this close to Charles, Erik can see just how blue his eye’s are and thinks that the ocean has some fierce competition in terms of color, although, he’s sure Charles wins this one. He might be bias though. Erik can also see all his freckles, and can’t help but wonder if Charles has freckles all over.

Charles suddenly realizes just how close they’re standing once he stops fixing Erik’s hair. He takes a step back to give them some space, but Erik closes the gap again and runs his hand through Charles hair a couple times, causing him to shudder in a oh so wonderful way.

“There, now we look presentable.” Erik mutters, doing them both the favor of backing up again.

“So do you want to take a walk?” Charles manages to get out, still trying to catch his breath from how sensual that was. 

Erik steps aside and motions for Charles to lead the way. “After you.” 

 

They start on the paved sidewalk in a random direction, setting a moderate pace and enjoying the sunny day and the beach. Because of the sun most people are out walking but only a few on the beach because of chilly it is today. They eventually find a spot along the beach and hang out for a little bit just watching the waves. Erik loves the ocean, and for a moment he feels homesick again.

“ Love is more thicker than forget, more thinner than recall, more seldom than a wave is wet, more frequent than to fail …” Erik starts to recite. “ It is most mad and moonly, and less it shall unbe, than all the sea which only, is deeper than the sea. Love is less always than to win, less never than alive, less bigger than the least begin, less littler than forgive,  it is most sane and sunly, and more it cannot die, than all the sky which only, is higher than the sky .-Cummings.”

“Mm do you just sit around all day memorizing poems and Shakespeare to impress all the boys?” Charles jokes, but is truly impressed.

“Why? Did it work?” Erik flashes him a grin. 

“A little.” Charles shrugs and pretends to be unimpressed. “Give me another one.”

“What would you like to hear?”

“Anything.”

“Ok.” Erik scratches at his face and thinks of another poem. “ The fountains mingle with the river, And the rivers with the ocean; The winds of heaven mix forever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine In another's being mingle-- Why not I with thine? ” Erik recites, staring intently at Charles, and steps closer to him. “ See, the mountains kiss high heaven, And the waves clasp one another; No sister flower could be forgiven If it disdained its brother; And the sunlight clasps the earth, And the moonbeams kiss the sea;-- What are all these kissings worth, If thou kiss not me. ”

 

Charles shallows hard and licks his lips.  Was that an offer? Was Erik telling him to kiss him?  He gets stuck staring at Erik’s mouth, concentrating really hard on his choices. Charles is honest to god about to close the gap and just kiss him, but then Erik is looking away back at the ocean breaking the moment.

“Percy Bysshe Shelley.” Erik lets him know the author of the poem he just recited. He doesn’t know how much longer he’s going to be able to do this. They were totally about to kiss. Erik desperately wanted that kiss to happen, but he also can’t stop the nagging at the back of his mind reminding him that not only is Charles taken but that they could never really be together because he’s leaving in a couple of months, and because of who he is. Sure it could be a one time thing, but Erik already knows he’s going to want more. He’s going to want Charles over and over again, and possibly forever; and that leaves him feeling frustrated and juvenile, like he’s some lovestruck teenager. 

 

Charles is honestly starting to get whiplash from being around Erik, and it’s only getting worse. It seems like the longer they hang out together the stronger the sexual tension grows between them. Charles should just stay as far away from Erik as he can get before things get complicated, but then he’s opening his mouth to ask him something.

“Are you doing anything for Halloween?”

“Uh, no.” Erik responds surprised by the question.

“It’s in a couple of weeks and Alex is hosting a costume party. Do you want to go?” Charles throws it out there. He then rethinks about it, but it’s not like he can take it back so instead he extends the offer. “Azazel can come too.” Maybe with Erik’s boyfriend there, things won’t get weird and he won’t be tempted to rip Erik’s clothes off.

“Um…” Erik’s confused as to why Charles would ask Azazel to go as well, but then again he could just be being friendly. “Ok, I’ll let him know...what are you going as?”

“I have no idea haha.” Charles feels a little better now that that moment is passed them. “How about you? Any ideas?”

“Not the slightest.” Erik shakes his head.

“We got time. Two weeks to be exact.”

“Do you want to start heading back?” Erik offers.

“Yeah, it’d be dark soon.” Charles agrees reluctantly. 

They get to Erik’s motorcycle, saying goodbye to the ocean and head back to Charles apartment where Erik drops him off in front of his building. 

“Thanks for the ride, it was actually a lot of fun.” Charles hands Erik back his helmet.

“I told you, and look- back safe and sound.” Erik beams at him.

“Right, well I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at work.” Charles sticks his hands in his pockets, not knowing what to do with them.

“See you tomorrow.” Erik puts on his helmet, and gives Charles a small wave before taking off. He definitely didn’t want a repeat of last night’s awkwardness.

 

Charles watches Erik drive till he’s around the corner and out of sight before heading up to his apartment. Once inside he knows Hank is home because all the lights are on, and doesn’t hesitate going straight to his friend’s room to flop on his bed while Hank sits at his desk.

“How did it go?” Hank turns his chair to face the bed.

Charles just groans.

“That bad?”

“No. The opposite. I don’t know maybe it was bad...maybe I am the other woman.” Charles thinks out loud to the ceiling. 

“I wouldn’t blame you. He is very hot and very your type.”

“I don’t have a type.” Charles scoffs. “I don’t date remember?”

“Yeah, well the string of tall, dark, and mysterious one night stands says otherwise.” 

“You think he’s mysterious?” Charles turns his head to face Hank.

“A little bit. That guy is hiding something.”

“Well it’s not his wife. I meant the boyfriend remember?”

“Yes I remember, but I don’t know. Maybe he killed someone and you’re next.” Hanks jokes.

“That’s not funny.” Charles mutters. 

“What happened on the date?” Hank adds. 

“ Friend date. ” Charles corrects him. “The art exhibit was a bust, so he took me to the beach on his motorcycle.”

“You rode his motorcycle?” Hank raises an eyebrow at him.

“Yes, and it was quite enjoyable.”

“Mm I bet it was.” Hank smirks.

“Did I tell you he just randomly recites poetry sometimes?” Charles rolls over on his side and props his head on his hand to face Hank.

“You told me about the Shakespeare, but not the poetry.”

“He’s really good at it too, like gets really into it and passionate.” Charles thinks back to the pieces Erik recited for/at him on the beach. “He recited some to me today, and it was just...breathtaking.” 

“How romantic.” Hank says dryly. 

“Anyways, I invited him and the boyfriend to the Halloween party.” Charles adds.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m a masochist and I want to see if he’s as flirty with me when his boyfriend is around.” Charles lays back down on his back.

“You’re a homewrecker.” Hank states like it’s a matter of fact.

“I’m not going to start anything. I’m not that stupid. This is all strictly platonic, besides he’s leaving in a few months remember?”

Hank just rolls his eyes and turns his chair back to his desk. He can see that this conversation is going to start going in circles. 

“You’re still going to the party right?” Charles deflects and turns to face Hank again. They somehow managed to convince him to go since he hadn’t been to one yet this year.

“Yes, I already have my costume.” 

“Good. You can help me assess the situation.” 

“Anything for you.” Hank mutters only half jokingly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Beta again, sorry folks. Also I've never been to Massachusetts or the Harvard art museum so the art exhibit is totally made up, I don't know what they really have up right now.


	10. Chapter 10

It was Halloween before they knew it, and Charles couldn’t find a costume in time. Either all the costumes were too cliche or he just couldn’t decide, so now he’s rummaging through his closet trying to find his iron element shirt. That counts right?

    Once he finds it, he throws it on and a black blazer before joining Hank out in the living room. “Oh my god.” Charles laughs when he sees that Hank is dressed up like Albert Einstein; ridiculous wig and mustache included.

    “You got to be kidding me-where’s your costume?” Hank gestures to him, and his mustache moves in a funny way that Charles can’t help but watch and giggle.

    “I couldn’t find one, but this should be ok.” Charles reassures him, but Hank just shakes his head disapprovingly.

 

**10:00pm**

 

Alex’s house is already packed when Charles and Hank arrive, but that doesn’t stop Charles from searching the crowd to see if Erik is here yet. He considers texting him, but he also doesn’t want to seem too eager.  

“Hey! You came!!!” Alex approaches them dressed as _Where’s Waldo_ , with Darwin in tow as a pirate. “Nice costume.” He tells Hank sincerely, but Charles could cut the tension radiating off the group with a chainsaw. The relationship between the three men is something of a mystery, and Charles has accepted that he’ll never know what exactly happened or what is happening. What he does know, or at least what they all suspect, is that Alex and Darwin might be together. They’re the Bert and Ernie or Lenny and Carl in their circle of friends where everyone suspects, but they’ve never officially said anything about it. The group also doesn’t feel right bringing it up, so it remains a mystery. What complicates things more is that at one time Hank and Alex were suspected to have something going on, and that’s a whole other can of worms that nobody wants to touch, so it too remains a mystery but with a little more awkwardness.

“Where’s your costume?” Darwin asks Charles, looking him up and down.

“I couldn’t find one.” Charles replies sheepishly, and prays to god that no one else asks him about it. Alex is about to comment on it, but then Moira and Sean dramatically push into their circle. “You came!” Moira yells excitedly at Hank over the music. “And where’s your costume?!”

Charles just sighs heavily and shakes his head. “You two look good.”  They make a really good Danny and Sandy from _Grease_.

    “Thanks.” They say proudly in unison and take a sip from their drinks.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” Moira asks Charles with a smirk.

    “What boyfriend?!” Alex and Darwin almost say together.

“Erik.” Hank replies for him, and Charles wants to hide under a rock.

    “He’s not my boyfriend.” He defends himself completely embarrassed.

“Did he tell you about his date?” Hank asks Moira, whose eyes go comically wide.

    “FRIEND DATE.” Charles yells a little too loud. He could kill Hank right now.

“I can’t believe you went on a date with him!!!” Moira ignores him.

    “He’s got a boyfriend, and I invited them to come hang out tonight.” Charles ignores her and tells Alex and Darwin, but they already don’t look like they believe him. “I’m going to go get a drink.” He rolls his eyes and exits the group immediately.

 

Charles is in the kitchen looking for a beer when he feels someone come up behind him.

“I vant to suck your blood.” Erik says behind him with a lisp because of the fake teeth. Charles turns around immediately, almost whacking Erik with his beer bottle.

“Oh my god, what are you wearing?” Charles is laughing as he takes Erik’s costume in.

“I’m Dracula.” Erik raises his arms with his cape so Charles can get a good look at his very cliche halloween costume. Charles has never consider vampires to be sexy but he could make an exception for this one. Although, the teeth are a bit ridiculous. “What exactly are you supposed to be?” He asks after taking off the fake teeth and putting them in his pocket.

    “I’m Iron.” Charles opens his blazer more so Erik can see his shirt.

“That’s lame.” Erik laughs.

    “You’re lame.” Charles gestures to all of Erik playfully. “Where’s Azazel?”

Erik squints his eyes at him questionably before answering, “He decided to stay home tonight.”

    “Ah ok...We’re all hanging out over by the stairs.” Charles points to his group of friends. “C’mon I’ll introduce you to the host.” He hands Erik a beer and leads the way back to the group.

 

**10:15pm**

 

Erik is quickly introduced to Alex and Darwin, and says hello to Hank and Moira before getting introduced to another person.

    “Erik, this is my husband Sean.” Moira introduces them proudly, but Erik’s world stops for a minute.

 

_Husband?_

 

    “Hi, it is so nice to meet you.” Erik says a little excitedly as he shakes Sean’s hand. He was so wrong. This whole time he was assuming Moira and Charles were together, and it turns out Moira is married. Charles was probably single. He’s probably been single this. whole. time.

 

_Oh my god, he’s such an idiot._

 

“It’s nice to finally meet you.” Sean lets go of his hand, and if this was any other situation Erik would be concerned about what is being said about him but right now he’s too busy trying to wrap his mind around what just happened.

    “So I hope you guys are ready for karaoke later.” Darwin cuts through his train of thought, and the whole group groans loudly.

    Sean speaks for everyone when he says “Nobody wants to sing tonight man.”

“You say that now.” Darwin points at all of them. “But later when you’re all drunk, you’ll be fighting to sing next.”

    “I should start drinking then.” Hank mutters and excuses himself to the kitchen.

 

“So what about you?” Alex turns to Erik. “You gonna sing later?”

    “Ah, I don’t know.” Erik shrugs, looking to Charles for help but he’s no help at all. Charles just shrugs too and takes a drink. “I don’t think anyone would want to hear me sing.”

    “They won’t remember anyway.” Alex laughs. “It’s fun, trust me.”

“Are you going to?” Erik asks Charles.

    “He’s going to say no but don’t believe him.” Alex answer for him.

“The Charles you think you know now is completely different when he’s drunk.” Moira adds and everyone chuckles in agreement. “Just you wait.”

    “Thanks guys.” Charles says sarcastically. He’s so ready to strangle all his so called friends. He’s not that bad when he’s drunk. Erik apparently finds it amusing though because he’s smiling at him like he just discovered a prize in the cereal box. He’s definitely not drunk enough for this yet. Luckily, Hank rejoins them with a red solo cup in hand.

    “What are we talking about?” Hank asks.

“How much of a slut Charles is when he’s drunk.” Sean blurts out causing Charles to choke on his drink while everyone laughs, including Erik. It’s going to be a long night.

    “I hate all of you.” Charles coughs out.

“Ah it’s ok, but we love you.” Moira reassures him.

 

**11:00pm**

 

    “So you seeing anyone Erik?” Alex blurts out. Charles is about to glare at him, but then Erik’s answering him.

    “Ah, no. No I’m not.” Erik says looking straight at Charles, who looks away immediately. Everyone is looking at him, their emotions range from surprised to smug.

 

    Charles is a fool. He wants to facepalm, but chugs the last of his beer instead. Erik is single.

 

Erik was single this whole time.

 

Everything makes so much sense now.

 

_He’s such an idiot._

 

“I need another drink.” He announces loudly and scurries away from the group. He also needs some air and some time to think about this. Once he makes it into the kitchen, Charles leans against the counter by the sink to contemplate his options. This the best case scenario that Charles could ever hope for, and yet he’s still conflicted about it. Does he want to sleep with Erik? Of course, but the problem is what happens afterwards. He suppose it could just be a casual thing, maybe a friends with benefits situation, but those never end well and Erik still is leaving in a few months. It could be a one time thing, but then he still has to work with him and that would be awkward. He could always fire him, or get his boss to actually do something for one, but that would be wrong on so many levels. He could just not have sex with him. Ugh, he’s too sober for all this.

Charles decides he’s just going to drink his troubles away tonight, and grabs two beers to take back to the group.

 

**11:45pm**

 

“So we’re up there on the roof, totally wasted.” Sean is animatedly telling Erik a story from a couple years ago. Charles didn’t think it was possible to fit more people into this house, but lo and behold they’re all crammed in together like sardines. Charles is using this as an excuse to why he’s plastered against Erik’s side, nevermind the fact that he’s very tipsy-possibly drunk. Not that Erik seems to mind anyways.

    “And Charles yells _‘Don’t jump!’_ from the ground” Alex adds. “I hear him.”

“But I don’t.” Sean continues. “I thought I heard him say _‘JUMP!’_ , so I do it.” He pauses for the groups reactions, even though they’ve already heard this story (more than half of them were there). “Broke my arm.”

    “Wow.” Erik chuckles and takes a sip of his beer. He’s had just as much as Charles has, but seems to be doing better than him. That bastard.

   

    “We should do shots!” Alex shouts, and they all groan. “Ah c’mon, this is the last party till graduation.”

    “Well when you put it like that.” Hank says sarcastically but then suddenly everyone is game. Charles hopes he doesn’t regret this later.

 

**12:30am**

 

    “I’m not drinking anymore!” Charles shouts over the music when Erik hands him another beer.

Erik doesn’t mean to pout, but he lost control of his face a while ago. “Why not?” He couldn’t possibly fathom why he needed to stop drinking now.

    “My sloppy d-drunk days are over.” Charles hiccups and waves his arms dramatically. He actually knocks someone’s drink out of their hands, and has to apologize profusely. Erik can kind of see his point now.

    Erik’s about to offer the person Charles’ beer, but then Charles is crowding into his space. “But you are so thoughtful though.” Charles is now cradling Erik’s face in his hands. “You went all the way to kitchen and got me a drunk and I rudely told you no and that was rude!”

All Erik can do is shake his head no because then Charles is talking again. “You are so handsome and I am so rude, so I tell you what-” Charles takes his hands off Erik’s face and grabs the beer “I’ll drink this. But! This is the last one.” He points at him before taking a really long swig. “Let’s dance!”

Erik doesn’t even have to time to process everything before Charles is grabbing his hand and being forced to dance to the _Ghostbusters_ theme.

 

**1:15am**

 

Erik promised Charles not to let him drink anymore (even though he ended up drinking another 2 after the initial last one), and he plans to keep that promise. If Erik didn’t think Charles was drunk before, he definitely believes it now. They started doing karaoke about 10 minutes ago, and it was Charles’ turn to go up on the little stage in the main room.

 

“Alright ladies and gentlemen.” Charles giggles into the microphone. “Especially the gentlemen...this one goes out to all of you.” He scans the audience, and lands on Erik before the opening chords for _I know what Boys like start_ :

 

_“I know what boys like_

_I know what guys want_

_I know what boys like_

_I've got what boys like”_

 

“Oh my god.” Erik groans to himself and facepalms. It’s not that Charles sounds bad, the exact opposite actually, but he’s really getting into it.

 

                                                                    _“I know what boys like_

_I know what guys want_

_I see them looking_

_I make them want me_

_I like to tease them_

_They want to touch me_

_I never let them”_

 

Erik’s now fearful he’s going to have be fighting for his attention, or worse- fight people off. He’s watching Charles through his fingers when someone stands close to him.

   

“You know he really likes you.” Moira tell him.

 

Erik is so caught off guard, he doesn’t even know how to respond to that.

 

    “Like _really_ likes you. _**A lot**_.” Moira continues. “He’s having trouble right now though because he has this silly no dating rule...maybe you can change that.” She shrugs and takes a drink. “I see the way you look at him.”

    Erik realizes he’s still gaping at her, so he shuts his mouth and promptly avoids her gaze. It’s one thing to assume someone might like you, but it’s another to have that confirmed. So Charles is single and really likes him. There’s so much he wants to do with that information, but he’s a little drunk and Charles is totally drunk. If anything were to happen between them it would not only be wrong, but Erik would much prefer to experience it when they’re both sober.

    “Don’t hurt yourself.” Moira laughs at him. “Or him...we’ll all fly to Genosha and kick your ass.” She adds seriously.

    “So you want me to date your friend, even though I’m leaving soon?” Erik asks her sheepishly. He can’t believe he’s having this conversation right now.

    “If it works out, there’s always long distance you know.” Moira suggests. Erik wishes that were true; that that was an option for him. If he were anyone else that could be a possibility, if he were anyone else he could just move here, but he’s not and it would be easier on the both of them if Erik just walked away from this situation right now.

 

    Charles finishes the last of the song, and accepts his applause with a bow before skipping off the stage to find Erik. “Why do you look so grumpy? Was I that terrible?”

    “No, you were fantastic. I’m not grumpy.” Erik reassures him with a smile and reaches out to steady him as he sways.

    “I’ve had a lot of practice” Charles smiles slowly at him. “Are you going to sing s’mething?”

“I don’t know any songs. Besides Moira and Sean are singing now.” Erik turns him towards the stage where the couple starts singing along to You’re the one that I want.

    “You gotta know s’mething! What they don’t have music where you’re from?!” Charles tries again.

    Erik not wanting to disappoint him, thinks of a song. “I think I might know one.” He tells Charles and steadies him before heading over to Darwin to let him know his song choice.

   

    Moira and Sean’s song is over a little too quickly for Erik’s liking, and it’s suddenly his turn. He’s so thankful Azazel decided to stay home tonight because he’s never let him live this down.

                                                             _“You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life_

_See that girl, watch that scene, digging the Dancing Queen”_

God, Erik knows he sounds bad, but he can see Charles in the crowd and he’s smiling like a dork and giving him two thumbs up which only encourages him more.

 

                                                             _“Friday night and the lights are low_

_Looking out for the place to go_

_Where they play the right music, getting in the swing_

_You come in to look for a king_

_Anybody could be that guy_

_Night is young and the music's high_

_With a bit of rock music, everything is fine_

_You're in the mood for a dance_

_And when you get the chance…”_

 

Erik’s really starting to get into now as he dances a little to the music, and makes sure to point at Charles for the next part.

   

                                                         _“You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen_

_Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine_

_You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life_

_See that girl, watch that scene, digging the Dancing Queen”_

 

   

The song is soon over, and Erik now understands the appeal of karaoke when he hops off stage full of adrenaline.

    “That was amazing!” Charles practically tackles him into a hug. “I wouldn’t have taken you for an _Abba_ fan.” He tells him and lets his arms drape around Erik’s shoulders.

    “What can I say? I’m a big fan of the Swedish pop sensation.” Erik says smugly placing his hands on Charles’ hips, pulling him closer to make room for the people trying to squeeze through the crowd. Totally innocent.

    “You know what we should do?” Charles asks a little suggestively and licks his lips.

“What?”

“We. Should. Do. Shots.” Charles hums to him.

“Oh no. I made a promise not to let you drink anymore.” Erik shakes his head, and Charles face falls.

“Who did you make that promise to?” Charles puts his arms down, and Erik thinks he’s about to have a very unhappy drunk on his hands.

“You.” He reminds Charles.

“That’s silly. No. Erik, trust me I’m perfectly fine. I can handle well my liquor.” Charles assures him.

    “No.” Erik laughs and shakes his head.

“You might be cute, but you’re not the boss of me.” Charles points at him then stalks off.

 

**2:45am**

 

It’s almost 3 in the morning and somehow the party is still going strong. Some people have gone home, but there’s still a lot hanging around.

“Hey, you know what we should do?” Alex asks the group. They are all hanging around the stairs again, all pretty drunk and very sleepy.

“No!” Moira shouts not caring about what Alex is about to suggest.

“I haven’t even said it yet.” Alex raises his hands defensively. “What I was going to say was remember last winter when I was house sitting and we-”

    “No!” Hank, Moira, Sean, and Charles all yell at Alex, who then throws his hands up in defeat.

    Erik is curious now though. “What were you going to say?” He asks him.

Alex is hesitant in answering him judging by the glares he’s getting from the group, but then decides to fuck it and tell him anyway. “Last winter I told them I was house sitting for some rich family and we could use the pool.”

    “Expect you lied.” Moira points at him. “He wasn’t house sitting, and all of us were almost arrested for breaking and entering or trespassing or whatever the hell it is.”

    “But we weren’t.” Alex reminds them. “Anyways, I am actually house sitting this time and they have a really nice pool.”

    “No.” They all shake their heads.

“I’ll go” Erik shrugs at Alex.

    “Really?” Alex sets down his beer excitedly.

“Yeah.” Erik sets his down too just as excited. A night swim sounded like a great idea right now for some reason. Might be the alcohol.

“No Erik, it’s freezing outside.” Charles latches onto his arm in concern.

“Did I mention it’s a heated pool?” Alex wiggles his eyebrows.

That definitely changes things. They all consider it for a moment until Moira speaks again, “You better not be lying.”

“I’m not I promise.” Alex makes a cross over his heart. “It’s actually just a few blocks over so we can walk.”

“What about all these people?” Hank looks around at everyone still partying.

“I’ll stay and man the fort.” Darwin laughs.

“You sure?” Alex asks, feeling bad Darwin wouldn’t be joining them.

“Yeah, besides I’d rather not anyways.” Darwin assures him and pats him on the back.

“Alright, so are we going?” Alex claps his hands together excitedly and waits for a response.

 “Lead the way.” Sean gestures for them to go.

 

    Alex was telling the truth when he said that the house wasn’t too far away. They were there in no time, however it was freezing outside and half of them were poorly dressed.

    “This better be worth it.” Charles hops up and down in attempt to warm himself up next to Erik. Erik’s half tempted to wrap his arms around Charles to keep him warm, but then Alex finally gets the gate open and leads them to the pool. Erik only has a moment to appreciate how nice the house is before everyone starts stripping down to their underwear, including Charles. Erik should’ve considered this before, but it honestly didn’t cross his mind. Charles catches him staring at him after he gets his shirt off and smirks at him.

    “Do you need help?”

“No.” Erik smirks back and gets to work on his own clothes. He tries not to gawk anymore at Charles, but you can’t blame a guy for appreciating. Charles is in great shape and pink around the edges from the cold, but he’s also got on boxers with little science beakers on them. “I like your shorts.” He laughs at him.

    “Nice boxer shorts. What are they Gucci?” Charles raises an eyebrow at him.

“Calvin Klein.” Erik smirks when Charles’ gaze lingers a bit too long on his package.

 

    “We’re going to jump on three.” Alex tells them as they stand in a line at the edge of the deep end. “Ready?”

 

    “One.”

 

    “Two.”

 

    “Three!”

 

They all jump in and _holy shit it’s freezing._

 

    Erik had braced himself for contact but not for how unbelievable cold the water would be. When they all come up for air they’re all screaming.

 

    “ALEX!!!”

 

“OH MY GOD!”

 

    “WHAT THE FUCK!?”

 

“YOU DICK!”

 

They all scramble to get out of the pool and struggle to put their clothes on before they die.

   

    “I-I m-might’ve f-forgot to t-turn h-heater on.” Alex tells them with his teeth chattering.

“YOU THINK.” Hank looks like he’s about to punch him.

    “I c-could kill you.” Sean mutters the best he could.

“I-I’m s-so sorry guyss.” Alex apologizes.

 

    Erik suddenly feels very sober now...and freezing wet, but once they’re all dressed again they’re running out of there back to Alex’s house.

 

**3:30am**

 

“That was such a bad idea.” Charles wraps his arms around himself. “Never listen to Alex.”

    “Now I know.” Erik chuckles, he’s still wet and cold but at least he’s sober enough to drive home.

“I think Hank wants to go home now.” Charles lets him know when he spies Hank by the front door.

    “Are you going to be ok to drive?” Erik’s now worried, and definitely doesn’t want him driving.

“I’m still a little drunk.” Charles shakes his head and laughs. “But Hank is good, he’ll make sure we get home ok. What about you? Are you gonna be ok?”

    “Yeah, that really woke me up.” Erik chuckles.

“Ok well, I better go before Hank gets crankier.” Charles says but makes no attempt to leave.

    “We wouldn’t want that. Goodnight Charles.” Erik smiles at him.

“Night Erik.” Charles smiles back, leaving reluctantly.

 

**5:15am**

 

    When Charles got home he took a warm shower and hopped into bed with the intentions of going to sleep, but that was almost 2 hours ago. He’s been rolling restless for 2 hours, thinking about everything that happened that night. He was certain Erik would’ve kissed him tonight or at least made an attempt. Maybe Erik wasn’t as into him as Charles thought he was. That thought has continued to bother him all night. He decided early on in his drunken state that if Erik made a move, it would be a sign and Charles would take it. It was a silly notion, hence the drunk part, but now that he was sober again he was reconsidering his options. If he wanted something he should go out and get it right?

    Before he could talk himself out of it, Charles reaches for his phone and texts Erik to see if he’s awake. It’s not likely that he is, but it’s worth a shot.

    Charles waits anxiously for a text back for several minutes. He’s about to give up, but then Erik’s calling him.

    “Hey.” Charles says nervously.

_“Hey.”_ Erik says quietly back. _“Is everything ok?”_

    “Yeah, yeah I just...I didn’t wake you did I?” Charles feels bad because Erik sounds sleepy.

    _“No, I was awake.”_ Erik reassure him, and Charles can hear him moving around in bed. _“Couldn’t sleep.”_

    “Yeah me either.” Charles chuckles quietly. “To busy thinking.”

_“Me too.”_

    “Oh yeah? What about?”

_“You.”_ Erik confess, and Charles’ heart starts to beat rapidly.

    “All good things I hope.” Charles jokes.

_“Mm only the best.”_

    Charles doesn’t know how to answer that. Luckily enough he doesn’t have to because Erik is talking again.

    _“Would it be too bold to invite you over right now?”_ Erik asks smoothly.

“Yes.” Charles says quickly. “I mean, uh yes I can come over.”

    _“I’ll text you my address.”_ Erik smiles audibly.

“Great, I’ll see you in a little bit.” Charles is eager to get off the phone only so he can rush over there and see him in person.

    _“Drive safe.”_ Erik tells him before they say a quick goodbye.

Charles jumps out of bed and throws on a shirt, his sweatpants, and a jacket before running out the door.

 

**5:40am**

 

    The sun is up by the time Charles makes it to Erik’s place. He finds it with no problem and is surprised to see that he was only 15 minutes away. He also lucky enough to find curb parking across the street from the brownstone, but lingers in the car for a little bit.

    He is very nervous and excited and he still doesn’t know what’s going to happen, and that just adds to his anxieties but there’s no turning back now. He gets out of his car and jogs across the street to knock on the door. He doesn’t have to wait very long because then Erik is there and he’s pulling him inside and pushing him into a corner. He doesn’t know who makes the first move nor does he care because Erik’s mouth is crashing into his and it hurts and it’s messy and it’s oh so perfect.  

    Erik stops kissing him for a brief moment so they both can breathe before running his hands in Charles’ hair and pulling him close again to kiss him again. This kiss isn’t as rough as their first one, but it’s just as passionate and Charles sighs happily as he wraps his arms around Erik so he’s completely flushed against him. Charles wishes they would’ve done this sooner.

    Erik is pulling back again though and breathlessly looking at him with affection and determination. Charles is about to go in for another kiss, but then Erik is freeing himself from his grasp and leading him out of the foyer and into the main house. Charles struggles for a minute to shuck off his jacket and shoes off before Erik leads them upstairs and into his bedroom, and then he’s kissing him again as he walks Charles backwards towards the bed. Once the back of his knees hit the bed, he ungracefully flops back onto it but recovers quickly to scoot up towards the head of the bed and pillows while Erik crawls on top of him. Charles expects Erik to continue what they started but then Erik is laying next to him on his side.

    “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.” Erik tells him, trying to catch his breath.

“Me too.” Charles catches his breath too.

    “I might have been a bit too ambitious though.” Erik confesses with a hand on Charles’ chest. “I fully intended to make love to you, but I might be really tired after all.” He says sheepishly. Charles finds it so endearing that Erik called it that instead of any of the other given names for sex and wants to kiss him for it, so he rolls on his side and does so sweetly.

    “It’s ok.” Charles chuckles as he lays back down on the pillow. “I might have been overly ambitious as well. I just...I don’t know. When I found out you were single and I didn’t know what I should do and then it plagued me all night.”

    “Same.” Erik purses his lips.

“What do you mean?” Charles asks confused.

    “Well...I thought you and Moira were together.” Erik confesses which causes Charles to laugh.

    “What?”

“Imagine my surprise when I met her husband tonight.” Erik laughs too. “Cute couple.”

    “Well I might of thought Azazel was your boyfriend.” Charles confesses too. Everything finally makes sense now.

    “Wow.” Erik makes a face at the thought of him and Azazel.

“Yeah, imagine my surprise.” Charles mimics him from earlier.

    Erik chuckles but then yawns. “Give me like 4 hours and I’ll make it up to you I promise.”

    “I’ll hold you to that.” Charles yawns too. “Let’s just sleep as long as we want.”

Erik just hums in agreement. It takes them a minute to readjust into a comfortable sleep position for the both of them, and settle with the both of them on their sides and Erik spooned behind Charles, holding him close. Erik’s bed is warm and comfortable, and Charles falls asleep quickly to the lull of of their shared breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so long! But things needed to happen so...  
> Also no Beta but I tried to edit as much as I could.  
> Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! <3


	11. Chapter 11

The afternoon sun is shining brightly through the window blinds and filling up the room with it’s warmth when Erik wakes up. He’s got a bit of a headache and cottonmouth- oh, and Charles is wrapped around him like some kind of octopus. As endearing as Erik finds this, he also has to pee, so he constructs a way to get out of Charles’ grasp without waking him up.  Surprisingly, and luckily for Erik, Charles is apparently not easily disturbed and very pliable when sleeping and Erik manages to slip away without notice. 

Once Erik has taken care of business and freshened up, he exits the bathroom in hopes that Charles is awake by now and that they could carry on with their previous activity, however, he finds that Charles is still sleeping. Erik leans against the bathroom door frame and considers his options for a moment. He could wake him up, but should he? He glances at the clock on his bedside table and realizes it’s almost 3 in the afternoon and way later than he had anticipated to wake up. 

Charles lets out a small huff in his sleep and Erik’s attention is once again drawn to watching him sleep. Which isn’t creepy he swears, it’s just that Charles looks so comfortable and content from where he is now spread out, taking up as much room as possible in Erik’s bed. Even if Erik wanted to crawl back into bed with him there’s no room for him, so he decides to just let him sleep and quietly makes his way out the room and downstairs.

 

“Oh, morning sleeping beauty.” Azazel smirks over at Erik when he joins him at the wooden kitchen table. “Have fun last night?”

“Yes, did you enjoy your night alone?” Erik runs a hand over his face and watches Azazel continue on with this week's crossword. 

“I did, and I was even more pleased when I woke up to another scandal-less morning.” Azazel sigh happily, and Erik hates to break that but he has to tell him.

“Charles is upstairs.” 

Azazel’s face falls. He should’ve expected it, but he still is surprised once Erik tells him because he didn’t think Erik was actually going to  finally make a move. “You’re kidding.”

“I’m afraid not, however, I haven’t had sex with him...yet.”

“What do you mean? You guys just have a slumber party? Braided each others hair and gossiped about boys?” 

“He came over early this morning after the party and we fell asleep.” Erik explains and ignores the slumber party comment and Azazel’s judgmental looks. 

 

“Well, this is great news.” Azazel half whispers at him.

“And why is that?”

“Erik, I didn’t think I needed to remind you of your situation but I will.” Azazel sets down his pen and leans slightly over the table, keeping an eye out over Erik’s shoulder just in case Charles decides to suddenly join them downstairs. “You’re about to become the King of our country, a fling with an American is just another scandal we can’t afford to have so close to your coronation. We’re already treading on a thin line being away from the country on this ‘vacation’, and the motorcycle incident. It was one thing when you were younger to have a string of affairs and to behave irresponsibly, but now it’s time to act more seriously and as one should when the whole damn country is watching you. There are some who already see you not fit for the throne and will use any excuse to take it away from you. Furthermore, have you considered the damage a scandal could cause Charles? From what you’ve told me, he seems like a great person who has a bright future ahead of him. I would hate to have his reputation ruined just because you couldn’t keep it in your pants.”

Erik lets everything sink in. He’s already considered all of this over and over again trying to come up with a solution. He was willing just to forget it all this morning, but hearing Azazel say it out loud brings back what reservations he has had about the entire situation. The worst part is trying to now figure out a way to tell Charles without offending him. He’s surely to be disappointed, might even hate him. Although, now that Erik considers it that might be the best outcome/solution. 

Erik groans and lays his head down on the table. He really hates this and just wishes it was over with already.

“There there little prince.” Azazel half mocks him and pats his back when he walks past him, leaving him alone with his thoughts for awhile. 

  
  


It’s nearly dark outside when Charles wakes up. For a moment he thinks he is in his own room, but then having a look around he remembers exactly where he’s at. He’s in Erik’s room and in Erik’s bed, but alone. He sits up and takes a moment to really have a look, and is only slightly bothered by how bare the room is. He hadn’t really noticed before but the room looks like something out of a minimalist catalog, too clean and white unlike his own room which is cluttered with books and what not. Although, he really shouldn’t expect much considering that Erik is only visiting, the townhouse must only be a rental after all. 

He spots the bathroom to his left and gets up to relieve his bladder. He’s surprised he slept that long, but he also smells like he slept all day so he uses the good old finger and toothpaste trick to help freshen up a bit before wandering outside the room to find Erik. Charles hesitates when he finds the staircase leading downstairs. He can hear a TV on somewhere so he’s guessing that’s where Erik must be, but he’s also a little nervous. It’s not that he’s ever not slept over at someone’s house, but he usually leaves first thing in the morning while the other person is still asleep. In this situation, Charles finds himself not knowing what exactly to do and also a bit embarrassed that he slept all day. 

He’s has to go down eventually, so he musters up some courage and decides to try and play it as cool as possible and makes his way down. Once he’s on the main floor he spots the living room on his left where Erik is lounging on the sofa watching TV and Azazel sitting in an armchair reading something. 

 

“Hey.” Erik spots Charles in the doorway and lifts his head off the sofa.

“Hey.” Charles says a little breathless and gives Erik and Azazel a small smile.

“Was going to check on you in a minute. Thought you might have died.” Erik sits up fully, and Charles lets out a nervous laugh and scratches the back of his head.

“Um yeah, sorry about that.” 

“No worries.” Erik smiles up at him. “Did you sleep ok?”

“Yes, I did thank you.” 

“Good.” Erik nods, but then they go a bit too long staring and not talking and Azazel feels like he’s dying from the awkward sexual tension, so he clears his throat.

“So…” Charles starts, and tries to think of something to say. “You should’ve seen your friend last night. Killed it at karaoke.” He blurts out. Erik’s smiles turns into a glare without any true venom of course and Azazel chuckles.

“You sang karaoke?”

“To ABBA nonetheless.” Charles chuckles too.

“What I wouldn’t give to have seen that.”

“I’m going to ignore the both of you.” Erik looks at the TV screen with a frown.

“No truly, he was quite good.” Charles sobers up and offers Erik an apologetic smile. 

“You only say that because you were very drunk and therefore can not give an accurate account.”

“Be quiet and take the compliment.” Charles wishes he had something to throw at Erik, but smiles regardless.

“Are you hungry?” Erik changes the subject. He’s suddenly reminded that he’s been waiting to eat for when Charles got up so that they could eat together. 

“Starving.” 

“I was thinking we could get breakfast.” Erik suggests and Charles’ face immediately lights up. 

“That sounds amazing. I can drive if you like.” Charles offers and then remembers that Azazel is in the room. “Would you like to join us?”

“Um no thank you.” Azazel smiles at him. It was nice of Charles to ask, but he’d rather not stick around and be the third wheel. Also if Erik is wise enough to end whatever this is, he definitely doesn’t want to be around for that. “I have some left over Thai calling my name.” He reassures him. 

“I’ll show you where your coat and shoes are.” Erik gets up and brushes past Charles into the foyer where his coat is neatly hanging up and his shoes arranged nicely. Charles can feel his face heat up when he remembers that earlier this morning he practically threw this stuff off himself in order to get at Erik. Charles thinks Erik must be thinking the same thing because he’s looking at Charles intensely with a small smile hidden at the corner of his mouth as he hands him the coat. Their hands brush and Charles has to suddenly physically stop himself from climbing Erik. It seems like whatever passions they had for each other this morning have come back full force, and Charles no longer cares that he his hungry but instead wishes they could go upstairs and get on with it. But Azazel is still here and that makes things a bit awkward too, so he puts on his coat and his shoes and waits for Erik to do the same before they make their way outside.

 

“You’re kidding me.” Erik stops short when they come to Charles’ car. “Please tell me this is a joke and you don’t actually drive a Prius.”

To which Charles just rolls his eyes. “It’s economical.” He argues with a shrug. “Stop being such a snob and get in the damn car.” Erik complies but with a heavy sigh. 

They make it to the diner in a comfortable silence that seems to follow them throughout their dinner. 

With the silence Erik has more time to think. He knows what he has to do, but now that Charles is up and present, he’s having a much harder time wanting to go through with. He wonders if this is what it feels like to break up with someone. Not that they were ever something, but it’s a weird sort of feeling to  almost be something with someone.

“Charles.” Erik starts. They’re nearly done eating, and Erik wants to get this over with now. “We should talk.” He suggests and Charles sets down his fork. He has a sinking feeling in his stomach and he’s sure it’s not the pancakes. No good conversations starts with ‘we need talk’, no matter the variation. 

“I’m all ears.” Charles says, but mentally braces himself.

 

“I...I don’t think this is a good idea.” Erik says slowly.

 

“What? The pancakes? I’m afraid it’s a little too late for that my friend.” Charles jokes but knows exactly what Erik’s talking about.

 

“No, I’m talking about this...us.” Erik tries again. “I know what I promised and I fully intended to follow through, however, after more time to really think about the situation I think it might be best to stop while we’re ahead.”

 

“I wasn’t asking you to marry me Erik, it was just going to be a quick shag.” Charles shrugs unconvincingly, but he has to respect that Erik has changed his mind. He’s disappointed but also a little relieved. “If you don’t want to do anything with me, I understand.”

 

“It’s not that I don’t want to.” Erik puts both elbows on the table and rubs his hands down his face. He’s almost angry how gracefully he’s taking this. “It’s that I’m-” Erik’s going to do it. He’s going to tell him everything and maybe Charles won’t freak out and they could actually have a chance.

 

“You’re married aren’t you.” Charles interrupts with a nod. 

 

“No.” Erik actually laughs. “I’m not married.” Although at this point he feels like he’s married to his country. He reconsiders his plan to tell Charles the truth; again. The less he knows the safer he’d be from unnecessary exposure, Erik figures. “The thing is...I like you. Tremendously. In an ideal world I’d stay here and maybe...given the chance...pursue you properly but-”

 

Charles can tell that Erik is really struggling here, so he stops him by reaching over and grabbing his hand. “Erik, it’s ok. I understand.” He gives his hand a small squeeze before reluctantly letting go. “We can just forget about it, and be friends if you like.” Charles suggests even though it’s really killing him. He starting to feel like now that he really can’t have Erik he wants him more than ever, but he’s not going to be a jerk about this. Erik is right after all, with less than two months till he leaves again, it really is best to not.

 

“Ok.” Erik nods his head in agreement but feels completely unsatisfied. “But I’m buying dinner.”

 

“Alright.” Charles rolls his eyes and laughs a little to lighten up the mood. They finish eating and pay shortly after in silence again but this time it’s more awkward. 

  
  
  


“Did you have anything in the house?” Erik asks once they pull up in front of the townhouse. 

“Um no, no I think I have everything.” Charles assures him, but looks everywhere else but at Erik. He’s almost thankful the streets are deserted, so he can feel embarrassed and awkward by himself later.

“Did you want to come in?” Erik asks even though he knows the answer. Just because they agreed to not have sex doesn’t mean they still can’t hang out and be friends.

“Um no, no thank you. I think I have some studying to do.” Charles winces. 

“Right.” Erik unbuckles and starts to open the door to leave. He turns wish Charles a goodnight, but once he gets a look at him he realizes he might not ever the chance again and selfishly leans over and kisses him. 

 

Erik meant for the kiss to be quick and chaste, but once his lips meet Charles’, Charles doesn’t hesitate in grabbing the back of Erik’s head and deepening the kiss. The action surprises Erik but he sighs into the kiss, giving Charles an opportunity to stick his tongue in his mouth and the one chaste kiss quickly turns into a heavy make-out session. Charles tastes sweet like syrup and something entirely his own and Erik can’t get enough as desperately tries to lean further across the center console while also grabbing at Charles to pull him closer as well.

 

“Maybe. Just once.” Charles breathes out quickly breaking the kiss before biting at Erik’s bottom lip, which earns him a moan so he doesn’t it some more and then mouth at Erik’s chin and across his jaw. 

 

“Mm?” Erik thinks Charles asked something but he’s having a really hard time concentrating right now while Charles kisses down his neck.

 

“Maybe.” Charles stops what he’s doing and lifts his head to meet Erik’s eye again. “Maybe, we could just once. Get it out of our system.” He can’t believe he even suggested it, but he’s not really thinking clearly. 

Erik cups Charles’ face and brings their lips together again. “My. Kingdom. For. A. Horse.” He mutters in between kisses. 

“Are you calling me a horse?” Charles breaks the kiss again and holds Erik at bay. 

“No.” Erik laughs. “Never mind.” He goes back to kissing him with more determination. 

 

“Erik.” Charles huffs out when they break again. “I need an answer. Yes or no.”

 

“God yes.” Erik pulls him back in and Charles unbuckles his seatbelt. Afraid that Erik might change his mind again once they’re out of the car, Charles climbs over the center console and straddles Erik’s lap.

Erik welcomes him with open arms and wraps his arms around Charles, pulling them together as close as possible. Charles is warm and sturdy in Erik’s arms and sinks fully into him till their groins meet. The act causes them both to gasp and moan into each others mouths.

Charles take the opportunity to run his fingers through Erik’s hair, resting his forehead against his, and grinding down slowly.

“Erik.” Charles manages to groan out while Erik sneaks his hands under Charles’ shirt, grabbing his hips, and encouraging him to continue rut against him. Erik then kisses down Charles’ face before finding the sensitive spot under his jaw and sucks a bruise there.  

Charles’ trails his hands down Erik’s front and doesn’t want to waste anymore time because he feels like he’s going to go mad or explode if he doesn’t get any relief soon and he’s sure Erik feels the same way. He sure hopes no one is walking by as he fumbles to undo Erik’s pants, running a hand over Erik’s hard on through his briefs before reaching in them and pulling Erik out. 

“Fuck.” Charles moans for Erik, who wordlessly tenses up before releasing a breathy shudder when Charles gives him one long soft stroke. Charles thanks God or whoever for blessing Erik with his massive length and desperately wishes he could have Erik inside him anyway possible, but he supposes a hand job will have to do considering he doesn’t keep lube in the car and they are still semi-public. 

Charles licks his hand and he knows it sucks, but Erik doesn’t complain when Charles starts jerking him off slowly. 

Erik quickly decides that he wants them to come relatively together if this was all they were going to get, so he snakes his hand beneath Charles’ sweatpants and pulls out his cock giving it one tentative stroke before licking his own hand and sets on a faster pace than the one Charles is currently on. 

Charles takes it as a hint and picks up the pace to match Erik’s and can’t help the embarrassing little moans coming out of his mouth. Erik is mostly quiet except for the occasional heavy sigh till he starts to mouth at Charles’ neck again. 

Charles isn’t going to last much longer and he knows it, so he picks up the pace on Erik’s cock and rubs his hand over it’s head, spreading the precum there, finally getting Erik to groan deep and long. So he does it again with a smirk on his face before returning to stroking down his shaft. At this point it’s a race to the finish, with Charles coming first and Erik shortly after.

Erik gives Charles one more kiss before resting his forehead against his and letting their breaths mingle as Charles slumps against him. They have to move soon considering they have cum all over their hands and down their shirts, but neither of them really want to. Erik’s never really been for post coital cuddling, but he’ll make an exception this one time.

  
  


“So…” Charles says after a beat, sitting up, and putting himself back together. He doesn’t know what to do with his hand, so he grimaces and wipes it on his pants. Even though he feels good, though a little sleepy now, he’s already aching to do that again or the other stuff he has in mind, but knows that he can’t and won’t so he climbs back over the center console to resist further temptation.

Erik puts himself back together once Charles is off his lap and struggles to figure out what to say next. “So…”

 

“Well…” Charles tries again. “I’m glad we got that out of our system.”

Erik just nods, afraid his mouth will betray him and say what he really wants to say like he definitely wants more. 

“Look...I really meant it when I said I wished us to be friends. Now that we don’t have that looming over us, hopefully we can move forward.” Charles manages to get out.

“Ok.” Erik nods. “Goodnight Charles.” He says before leaning over and giving him one more kiss and exiting the car. 

Charles makes sure he gets inside ok before driving home and tries not to regret what just happened. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, sorry this took so long. sorry it doesn't have a beta.And terribly sorry this is my first time writing a sex scene. I finished this at like 3 in the morning and decided just to post it before i change my mind. hope you enjoy regardless!


	12. Chapter 12

Charles wasn’t a liar. He meant what he said about him and Erik only being a one time thing; however, one thing lead to another and this is the fifth time this week he’s figuratively fallen into bed with Erik, and it’s only Wednesday.

Thankfully they’re actually in a bed (Erik’s bed) this time instead of crowded against a wall or on the floor (ouch). It’s been mostly more quick hand jobs and the occasional mutual blow job and not that Charles is complaining- in fact Charles is having a hard time saying anything right now while he’s got three fingers up his ass working him open and Erik’s sucking him off.  

 

“Fu-” Charles tries to moan out when Erik rubs up against his prostate, causing him to see stars behind his eyes and his back to arch up. He attempts to try and get Erik’s attention because this has gone on long enough and he needs Erik inside him like yesterday. “E-Erik.” Charles grabs at his hair and tries to pull him up, which Erik finally complies releasing his cock from his mouth with an audible pop and removes his fingers. Charles whimpers a little at the lose, but reaches for the condom by his head and works on opening it. “I need you to fuck me.” He grits out and Erik huffs out a small laugh.

“You’re so pushy.” Erik says with a small smile as he caresses a hand up and down Charles’ flank.

“Shut up and help me with this.” Charles shuts him up with a kiss and can taste himself in Erik’s mouth and it’s so hot. Erik helps to get the condom on, slicks himself up with a generous amount of lube, and lines himself up with Charles’ hole. He pauses for a second when he realizes that this will be the first time he has full on intercourse with Charles and wants to selfishly savor the moment, but then Charles is licking his lips and giving him an impatient shrug which only makes him laugh. He doesn’t mean to laugh at him, but at this moment Erik is elated that he gets to share this moment with someone as adorably demanding as Charles.

“Why are you laughing?” Charles asks through closed teeth and grabs at Erik’s shoulders.

“Nothing.” Erik shakes his head still chuckling, but leans on his elbow by Charles’ head and slowly pushes in.

    “Mm.” Charles hums contently and then Erik is finally seated fully within Charles. Erik leans his other elbow on the other side of Charles’ head so he’s barricaded in Erik’s arms, pressing his forehead to his while they share a breath and waits for Charles to relax.

Charles has never felt so full and has to wait a minute, willing himself to relax and accommodate Erik’s length. He snakes his hands up Erik’s face, mapping his features with his hands before running his fingers through his hair like he knows Erik’s likes. Charles pulls Erik down for a hard kiss before lifting his hips and thrusting back on Erik’s dick.

Erik moans into Charles’ mouth and slides almost completely out of him before slamming back into the hot heat that’s driving him crazy experimentally.

“Erik.” Charles whines. Erik slides a hand down Charles’ side again and hooks his arm under Charles’ leg, hitching it up so he can get a better angle as he sets a pace. He starts out slow but picks up the pace once he finds Charles’ prostate again, causing Charles to moan wantonly with each thrust.

Charles reaches a hand out to search for something other than Erik’s scalp to cling onto, and Erik helps him out by lacing their fingers together and pulling their intertwined hands back above Charles’ head. Charles’ approves and throws his head back, giving Erik better access to his throat. Erik licks down the column of his neck before burying his face in between the junction of Charles’ neck and shoulder. Erik isn’t going to last much longer, but he’d be damned if he comes before Charles’ is finished so he lets go of Charles’ leg and wraps his hand around Charles’ pretty pink dick and starts stroking it in time with his thrusts.

    “F-fuuuck. Oh God, yes. Erik. Fuck me.” Charles’ pants and it doesn’t take long till he’s coming with Erik’s name on his lips. Erik fucks him through his orgasm and comes shortly after.

Not wanting to squish Charles, Erik pulls out and rolls off him. He waits till he catches his breath and gets up to remove the condom and get a wash cloth to clean up.

“Mm thank you darling.” Charles thanks Erik as he cleans him up and chucks the wash cloth. “Last time I promise.”

“Mmhm.” Erik chuckles as he lays back down and pulls Charles close so he’s lying on Erik’s chest. “Until next time.”

Charles laughs into a yawn and knows that Erik is probably right. They’ve been saying last time for a while now and yet here they are. Charles is fully prepared to wait until later to worry about what this will mean and bask in post coital bliss when he suddenly remembers he’s supposed to be somewhere.

“Shit.” Charles rolls out of bed and frantically starts to put his clothes back on.

“What’s wrong.” Erik asks worriedly and watches him.

    “I was supposed to meet everyone at the coffee place for a study group 30 minutes ago.” Charles explains as he zips up his jeans and pulls his sweater over his head. Erik gets up too and pulls on a pair of dark blue sweat pants to see Charles out.

    “This was fun.” Charles says quickly before turning to give Erik a kiss at the front door. “I’ll see you tomorrow at work.”

    “Mmhm.” Erik kisses him one more time before letting him go. He makes sure Charles makes it to his car before heading back inside.

    “Don’t look at me like that.” Erik knows Azazel is eyeing him as he walks by the living room into the kitchen to get a snack, but right now he doesn’t care.

  
  


    “Look who finally decided to show up.” Sean exclaims when Charles takes the empty seat between Moira and Hank at the table.

    “Sorry.” Charles mutters apologetically as he gets his stuff out of his book bag. He’s thankful he had his stuff in the car and didn’t have to go all the way home to get it. “I was caught up with something.”

    “Wait.” Moira eyes him. “Did you just come from Erik’s?”

“Well I did just come yes.” Charles smirks.

 

    “Ah.”

“Gross.”

    “You should’ve just stayed there.” The group talks over themselves.

Charles just shakes his head and chuckles. “No, I really need to study and being around you guys will help keep me focused and not get distracted by...other things.”

    That’s enough to satisfy the group and they all go back to focusing on their individual studies. For a short while.

    “How’s the sex?” Moira turns to look at Charles.

“Ah Moira, don’t.” Sean groans next to her.

    “What? I don’t get to see him all the time anymore and I want to know things.”

“It’s fantastic.” Charles gives her a cheeky smile. “I won’t go into detail, but it’s great. He’s an excellent lover.” He says sincerely and tries to hide a blush with a cough. He wants to talk more but he’s certain Hank and Sean definitely don’t want to hear about it, so he hopes that’s enough to satisfy Moira until they can talk more privately.  Moira accepts that answer and they all go back to studying, this time uninterrupted for a couple hours.

 

“Have you figured out what you’re doing for Thanksgiving?” Moira pulls Charles aside once they’re outside in the parking lot getting ready to leave. “I feel terrible we’ll be having double diners and you’ll be all by yourself this year.” She pout at him.

    “Um I haven’t thought about it really but it’s ok really.” Charles reassures her. With school and Erik, Charles has completely forgotten about Thanksgiving.

“Have you heard from Raven?”

“Um no. She’s still trekking across Europe with Irene, and I’m not really expecting her till Christmas anyway. But really, don’t worry about me.” Charles explains.

“Maybe you can have dinner with Erik.” Moira suggests.

It isn’t a bad suggestion, and Charles has never really consider it before. “I don’t think he celebrates Thanksgiving.” Charles thinks out loud.

“You could always ask.” Moira shrugs. “I don’t think he’ll say no food. No one says no to food.”

Charles considers this for moment and tries not to get excited about the prospects of spending the holidays with Erik. He’d invite Azazel over too in an attempt to get to know the man better. He could even make dinner. “I could make dinner.”

“I was thinking more catering.” Moira winces. She doesn’t even know if Charles can cook.

Charles of course can’t really cook but he could try. “No I can try and cook something. It’ll be fun.” He decides.

“Ok, well I’m just glad you won’t be alone.” Moira sighs and gives him a quick hug. “I’ll see you around before that ok.”

“Ok, have a goodnight.” He lets go of her and waves at Sean as they get in their car and leave.

“Did you walk or-?” Charles asks Hank.

“Uh yeah.” Hank nods.

    “Get in.” Charles laughs and they head home.

  
  


It’s the week of Thanksgiving when Charles finally gets around to asking the big question.

    “Hey.” He stops Erik who comes to the front counter to get books to put back.

“Hey.” Erik smiles at him.

    “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” Erik leans on the counter and waits for Charles to ask his question.

    “You can say no and you probably don’t celebrate it anyways, but Moira and Sean are going to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families and Hank is going to his grandmas and well I was thinking about making dinner and maybe you and Azazel could come over...if you wanted to.” Charles manages to get out quickly.

    “I’d love to and I’m sure Azazel would love to as well.” Erik accepts, though he does know Azazel is going to disapprove. He can disapprove all he wants, but Erik has an opportunity to spend more time with Charles so he’s going to take it. “Should we bring anything?”

    “Mmmmm, you could bring dessert if you like.” Charles leans against the counter too so their arms are touching.

“Is that all you want?” Erik drops his voice low and leans the rest of the way to kiss him, but then Charles leans away with a sly smile.

“I’ll get back to you. Now put these books up.” Charles and pushes a stack towards him and Erik rolls his eyes.

  
  


It’s a couple days before Thanksgiving and Charles realizes he needs to clean up the apartment. Not that it’s terribly messy but they have books and paper everywhere, and he can’t remember when was the last time he dusted. He doesn’t even know if they have a duster.

He then realizes that they also don’t have a dinner table. They can’t eat on the floor on Thanksgiving after all. There’s a small space for one, but they’ve never gotten around to actually getting one. So he needs to get a table and chairs and probably kitchen stuff, plus ingredients for the dinner.  

Charles is lost in thought, mentally making a list of stuff he’s going to need when someone knocks on the door. He pauses because he wasn’t expecting anyone over this late. Erik would’ve texted or called if he was coming over so it couldn’t be him and everyone else he knows are out of town with their families. He hesitates answering the door but the knocking becomes more persistent, so he swings the door open and is utterly surprised to find his sister waiting on the other side surrounded by luggage.

“Surprise!” Raven shouts with jazz hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta so I apologize it's terrible but I figured I'd update again since it's been over a month or so since I had a chance to pay attention to this. Also sorry it's so short, I'll try and make the next one longer. Hope you enjoyed! And thank you so much to everyone being so supportive, it really means a lot <3


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hate this chapter. It took me forever to write and I feel like the spacing is weird and I had to make up a lot of stuff and there's no beta again, but I need to stop stressing over it cuz I really need to move this forward.   
> The warnings happen towards the beginning and even though they are brief and only mentioned I thought I'd let everyone know for good measure.   
> Once again thank your support and and a mega thank you for everyone who has stuck around  
> <3

“Raven!?” Charles huffs surprised as Raven embraces him tightly in a hug before grabbing her luggage and pushing her way into the apartment. He takes a second to take everything in and to make sure she’s really here. He surely wasn’t expecting her, but he’s glad to see that she looks well. He notices that her blonde hair got longer and her face a little fuller or mature rather and that she’s still looks sun kissed even in her black sweater dress.

“What are you doing here?” Charles closes the front door and asks finally.

“What? I can’t come and see my only brother?” Raven eyes him.

“No. I mean yes-no I mean I haven’t heard from you in months and the last time I checked you were coming back for Christmas.” Charles explains, but then gets suspicious. “What happened?”

“Why does something have to happen for me to come home? Geez talk about a cold welcome, you know I thought you of all people would’ve been  ecstatic that I’m here for family holiday time or whatever.” Raven waves a hand dramatically, but Charles just raises an eyebrow. He loves his sister, but she’s never really been one for ‘family time’. Charles considers it has something to do with her being adopted, their particular upbringing, and her wanting to find herself. Charles doesn’t really understand that last part, but it’s important to her so he’s tried to support her the best he can; however, he practically had to beg her to come back for Christmas so whatever excuse she’s about to tell him-he’s not buying it. 

“Well if you must know…” Raven starts. “I had a revelation, almost a spiritual awakening...I’m practically a different person now Charles.” She assures him. “So we’re out there backpacking through Italy or whatever and I see all these you know farmers and artists and their doing something with their lives and producing and giving back to world and so I say to myself...Raven what are you doing? How are you contributing? How are you giving back? So I booked the first flight back and decided I was going to find something I’m good at and give back to the community. I was going to call but then I decided a surprise would’ve been better.” 

Raven finishes explaining, and while Charles believes that most of that is sincere, he also hears a different story. “You ran out of money.”

“A little yeah.” Raven nods with a wince. 

“How much you got left?” Charles sighs. He warned her about this trip and using up all her inheritance.

  
  


The topic of their inheritance is a sore subject as it is and Charles hates that this is the first conversation he has to have with his sister now back in the states. The thing with their inheritance is-well long story short: His mother married an asshole after the untimely death of his father. Kurt Marko was a friend of Charles’ father (Brian) and a trusted partner in Xavier’s Medical Equipment Company. After Brian’s heart attack and the new marriage, Kurt became the new head CEO and business was alive and well for a little bit before shit the fan. 

The company started to lose money, or rather money started to go missing. With the failing business Kurt became more abusive to anything he could get his hands on: Charles’ mother-Sharon, Charles, Raven, and especially Kurt’s own son and their step brother Cain. Sharon resorted to alcohol in order to escape/ignore what was happening to the business and in her own household, and not that Charles’ could blame her really. Charles was still in high school when they officially shut down the company. It wasn’t long after that when Charles found Sharon’s body after she downed a bottle of pills in the master bathroom. Not a day goes by that Charles’ wishes they had had more time with his mother, but he can take comfort in that her suffering has ended.

With the company being audited, it was soon discovered that Kurt had been involved with some illegal gambling and money laundering. He was investigated, tried and sentenced to prison. All that was left was the family estate that went to Charles and some money set aside from Sharon’s will, split between them. Cain unfortunately got the worst of everything and received nothing in the end. He left shortly after his father’s hearing and neither Raven nor Charles have heard from him since.

  
  


Charles hates being reminded of their past and tries not to dwell on it, but instead tries to focus on the present and the problems at hand. He’s told Raven time and time again to watch her spending, but she never listens.

 

“Oh a good chunk of it is still left, but you know.” She shrugs and flops on the couch.

Charles is able to breathe a little in relief. “Well that’s good. What about Irene?”

“She’s fine. Went back home too. I’m supposed to call her later.” Irene is Raven’s best friend/sometimes girlfriend, Charles thinks but doesn’t know. He gave up trying to figure that one out a long time ago. “Where’s Hank?” Raven asks looking around. That’s another relationship Charles doesn’t know the details of. He’s starting to wonder if he’s really bad at paying attention to the relationships around him or he’s just imagining them.

“He’s at his grandma’s again for Thanksgiving.” Charles answers her, but then remembers his own plans and oh god, Erik. “Listen Raven, I have some...friends coming over for Thanksgiving.” He starts.

“Ok that’s cool. Is it Moira and Sean? Oh my god I feel so bad I missed the wedding! Was it beautiful?”

“Yes, but no it’s not them. You haven’t met them before…”

“Ok that’s cool. Are you ordering?” Raven asks

“Um no. I thought I’d cook this year.” Charles starts to explain but stops short when Raven lets out a snort.

“You? Cook? Charles, when have you ever cooked something that edible? Do you even know how to cook a turkey?”

Charles rolls his eyes. He’s getting tired of people assuming he can’t cook. They’re not wrong, but a little faith would be nice. “No, but it can’t be that hard. Plus now I have you to help me.”

“Ha ha um Charles we both know that out of the two of us, I’m the worst cook. And that’s saying something.” Raven reminds him, and he groans as he rubs his temples. She once gave them food poisoning after an attempt to make dinner. Charles is surprised he didn’t die that day. 

“You’re right, but you’re the best I have right now. So will you help me?” He pleads and tries to give her his best puppy dog eyes. 

“Ugh, ok.” She agrees, but rolls her eyes. “Why do you want to cook anyways?...Oh my god. Are you trying to impress someone?”

“No.” Charles can feel his face heat up, so he moves into the kitchen to get a piece of paper to make a list of the stuff he needs.

“Oh my god, you are!” Raven follows him and eyes him over the counter. “Are you seeing someone?” 

“No Raven. Now stop it.” Charles snaps at her. He immediately feels bad, but he’s also annoyed at her questions and that he can’t even answer that because he doesn’t know what exactly him and Erik are. “I’m sorry, it’s been a long day. Do you want to help me make up this list for dinner?”

Raven sighs heavily and continues to eye him suspiciously, but agrees. “You’re going to need a table.”

  
  
  
  


It’s the day before Thanksgiving and Charles doesn’t even know where to start. He has all the ingredients that they got from the store yesterday set out and organized the best he can on the kitchen counter, but the hardest part right now is figuring out when he should start on the turkey, and what time they should eat tomorrow. He did some research and figured out that most people eat an early dinner around 3pm. He realizes he would’ve been cutting it close with baking time if he had gotten a bigger turkey, but it’s just the four of them so he got a small 5lb one and got it just in time yesterday to give it time to defrost overnight and most of today. 

He decides he wants them to eat at 3, but he also wants some extra time just in case something goes wrong; so really the turkey needs to be done at 2:30. He does some calculations and matches up the times with his recipe and decides he needs to start to brine the turkey at 5:30pm today. It’s only noon, however, so he has some time to kill. 

He texts Erik to let him know what time dinner is, but also lets him know that if he wanted to come over earlier than that that’s ok too. He also lets him know about Raven, which Charles is surprised that Erik seems excited to meet her. He could be mistaking excitement for vague interest over text, but tries not to read too much into it.

They managed to get over to an IKEA yesterday as well to pick up a table and some chairs, so he decides to put that together. Which is where Raven finds him on the floor an hour later. 

“Having fun?” She asks as she digs through the kitchen to find the cereal they bought yesterday. 

“A blast.” Charles says sarcastically. 

Raven chuckles at him and takes her cereal with her to eat on the couch to watch him work. “Charles, it can’t be that hard to put together a simple table.”

“It’s not that it’s hard…” Charles trails off, concentrating more on the instructions. “It’s that the instructions are just pictures, and I’m trying to figure out what goes where…” 

“Mmmm...I still can’t believe you got the one with those ugly orange chairs.” She comments in between bites.

“On sale remember?” Charles reminds her, but she’s right. The plastic orange chairs are ghastly and stick out like a sore neon thumb in his dull apartment. “Ah-ha! That’s where that goes.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be cooking or something?” Raven interrupts.

“Not until 5:30…listen, I’m going to really need your help tomorrow.” He finally looks up at her once he’s got the screw in the right place.

“Yeah yeah, I know.” Raven waves her spoon dismissively. “What time is everyone coming over tomorrow?”

“I’m not sure, but dinner is at 3.” Charles informs her and so back to the table, but then stops again. “I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, but I’d like it if you were on your best behavior tomorrow.”

“When am I not?” Raven scoffs at him. Which earns her a glare from Charles. “Of course-I wouldn’t want to embarrass you.” 

“I only meant that these are relatively new friends so-”

“So no embarrassing stories or getting drunk. Got it. Geez they must be really important to get your panties in a twist.” Raven rolls her eyes and heads back into the kitchen for more cereal.

“Just a precaution, that’s all.” Charles goes back to the table.

 

 

Charles is thankful once 5:30 finally rolls around. He successfully put the table together hours ago, so he’s just been laying around the house with Raven watching whatever they can find on TV. The wait was making him antsy, so he’s relieved he can get started on something again. 

He throws together the brine and then gets to rinsing the turkey before putting everything in the bag and in the fridge. He honestly thought this turkey business was going to be a lot harder, but it turns out it’s more or less just waiting around. He makes sure to set an alarm in the morning for 9, giving the turkey brine about 16 hours to work it’s magic; or whatever that means. He’s not entirely sure what the brine is for or what exactly it’s doing, but it’s part of the recipe and this recipe has 5 stars so he’s doing it. He has more time to kill before he goes to bed and considers going over to see Erik, but he doesn’t want to seem needy so he goes back to chilling on the couch with Raven until they call it a night.

 

If it were any other day Charles would have probably slept past his alarm, but because of anxiety over the turkey he is up even before the alarm goes off. He’s been letting Raven sleep in his room and he’s taken the couch, so when he gets up he puts his sheets and blankets away before making himself some hot tea. 

“Wwwe’re missing the parade.” Raven yawns when she joins him out in the living room. 

“You’re up early.” Charles notes as Raven flips on the telly and puts on the parade. “I thought I was going to have to drag you out of bed later.”

“I could say the same for you.” 

“Couldn’t sleep-There’s still some time before I really need you if you wanted to get ready first.” Charles suggests.

“Uggghhhh, I don’t want to get ready. Can’t I just stay in my pjs all day?” Raven groans and drapes dramatically over the couch.

“No, you smell.” Charles teases her and heads back into the kitchen to pull the turkey out and preheat the oven.

“Thanks mom.” Raven teases back, but goes to the back of the apartment to get ready.

 

While Raven is making herself presentable, Charles rinses the turkey and lets it soak before trussing it, covering it and putting it in the oven for about an hour. He finds some classic jazz to listen to and waits for the Raven to come out of the bathroom. 

Raven still isn’t out yet an hour later, so Charles proceeds with the rest of the instructions for the turkey.

“There better be hot water left.” Charles half threatens as he’s rubbing the turkey with a butter mixture he just made.”

“There is, calm down. Most of that time was me blow drying my hair.” Raven stands next to him and watches him rub the turkey with his hands. “That’s kind of gross.”

“I know, but the instructions said this was the best way-be a doll and turn on the faucet please.”

Raven helps him wash his hands and clean up the area a bit before they put the turkey back in the oven this time at a higher temperature.

“What do you need me to do?” Raven asks

“If you can get started on the casseroles while I take a shower would be wonderful.”

“Aye-aye captain.” Raven poorly salutes and grabs the stuff she needs. They’ve decided on a menu composed of: green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, cranberry sauce, the turkey and gravy. It seems like a lot, but Charles really wanted to go all out since this is the first Thanksgiving he’s ever hosted.

“Oh and Raven-” Charles stops on his way out of the kitchen. “Try not to burn the place down.”

 

When Charles steps out of the bathroom, he’s pleasantly surprised at how good the apartment smells and feels his stomach start to growl. He also starts to hear multiple voices coming from the main room. He thinks it’s the TV at first, but then he hears a familiar male laugh and realizes that Erik and Azazel must have come early. He struggles to get ready quickly and practically runs out into the living room where everyone is conversing. 

 

“Hey.” He says breathlessly and automatically makes a beeline for Erik, leaning in for a quick hello kiss that he usually does, but stops short once he realizes what he’s doing.

“Hey.” Erik gives him a questionable look and Charles can see Raven from over the kitchen counter smirking and giving them a knowing look. He groans internally. He should’ve just told her what was going on but he didn’t and now he’s going to have to. 

“So you’ve met Raven?” Charles steps back and wills himself to play cool.

“Yes, she was just entertaining us with a story from her travels.” Azazel lets him know.

“Sorry we’re early.” Erik gives him a once over

“Oh no, you’re fine.” Charles assures him and feels his face heat up. Half from embarrassment and half from how good Erik looks in that black turtleneck. 

“They brought over 6 pies!” Raven interrupts their moment.

Erik just shrugs. “We didn’t know which one you’d prefer, so we bought a mix.”

“Wow um, well thank you.” Charles chuckles. He has no idea how they’re going to eat all those pies.

“Least we could do. Thank you for inviting us.” Azazel adds.

“Is there anything we could do to help?” Erik offers and Charles raises an eyebrow at him.

“I didn’t know you could cook.”

“He doesn’t.” Azazel smirks.

“Doesn’t mean we can’t help.” Erik glares at him.

“I think we’re just fine.” Charles squeezes Erik’s arm, but then doesn’t want to make it weird so he pats Azazel’s on his way back into the kitchen.

They still have about an hour until the turkey is done, but everything is coming together nicely and without a hitch. Charles thanks the universe for everything going so well. While they cook Raven continues to tell them more about her travels for easy conversation and Charles is about to check on the turkey when Azazel suddenly yelps in pain.

“OH MY GOD!” Raven yells and drops the knife she was using to cut up potatoes with. Somewhere along the way Azazel ended up next to Raven and his hands must of been on the counter and Raven must have not been paying attention and cut the tip off his middle finger clean off. “HOLY SHIT!” She yells frantically and there’s blood everywhere. Charles thinks fast and grabs a clean towel and wraps Azazel’s hand. He doesn’t know what exactly to do in this situation, but he does know that that’s a lot of blood and that they need to go to the emergency room.

“Erik my keys are on the coffee table.” Charles tells him and Erik rush's immediately over to get them, as Charles starts to lead Azazel towards the door. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see, oh my god.” Raven apologizes close to tears and follows after them.

“It’s ok.” Azazel winces, elevating his hand. He’s reacting rather calmly, given the situation. “Wait.” He stops them before they can get out the door. “We can’t all go-what about the food.” 

“I’ll take him to the nearest hospital.” Erik latches onto Azazel’s other arm.

“We could all go. It’s ok. It’s just food.” Charles suggests and doesn’t let go of Azazel.

“I’ll take him. There’s no need for you and Raven to miss out on the food you prepared.” Erik argues with him. Really, Azazel is his best friend. He wasn’t going to just abandon him. 

“I’ll take him.” Raven adds and slips on her coat. “I’m the one who cut his finger.”

“Erik, you can stay. I don’t think it’s that bad, it’s just bleeding a lot.” Azazel says suddenly and means it. There’s no point in them all going, and if Erik goes then he’s sure Charles is going to want to go as well. “How long do you think it’ll take?” He asks Raven.

“I don’t know. Maybe since you’re bleeding out we’ll get seen faster.” Raven shrugs.

“Raven can take me and you guys can finish up the food. Don’t wait for us, but do save us some.” Azazel wiggles out of both their grasps and follows Raven before the other can argue about it some more. 

  
  


Charles is mortified and is about to apologize to Erik, when Erik starts to laugh. 

“Why the hell are you laughing?! This is a serious matter.”

“Oh no, I know.” Erik sobers up a little but is chuckling. “I’m very concerned for my friend, but I’m sure he is in good hands.” 

“What do you mean? Why did you say it like that?” Charles questions him confused.

“Really? They’ve been blatantly flirting this whole time.” Erik explains and Charles is lost. He doesn’t know how he missed that. “It’s not everyday I see Azazel try to be smooth and then she goes and slices his finger off. It’s a little funny.” Erik shrugs. 

Charles can see where he’s coming from, even if he still feels about it and definitely has mixed feelings about the flirting nonsense. He doesn’t quite believe him yet, but he rolls his eyes and gives Erik a small smile nonetheless. He turns back to the kitchen to assess the damage and concludes that the potatoes are completely ruined, but other than that there’s not as much blood everywhere as he thought. He gets Erik to throw out the potatoes and help him clean and sterilize the area before finishing up with the cooking.

 

They get a call from Raven about an hour later to let them know what’s going on. 

“So good news, he isn’t dead yet.” Raven starts. “And the doctor said that the cut was clean and wasn’t even that deep, so he’s not going to need surgery or anything like that. But I did ask if there was anything we could do about his face, but she said no so I guess he’s stuck with it.”

“I can hear you.” Charles hears Azazel in the background and thinks Erik might’ve been on to something after all. 

“We should be back in an hour or so. It’s a Thanksgiving miracle we got in here so fast.” Raven adds.

“Yeah, well I guess I’ll see you when you get back. Let me know if anything changes.” 

“Will do.” They say their goodbyes and Charles lets Erik know what Raven told him minus some stuff.

“Did you want to eat?” He asks even though he still feels guilty that they’re eating before the others.

“Yeah, I could eat.” Erik nods, and they serve themselves before sitting across from each other on the new table.

“Not exactly how I pictured today going.” Charles comments.

“Me either, but it’s ok. More memorable this way.” Erik offers with a grin and Charles feels a little better. 

“I’m sorry about earlier.” Charles adds.

“About the finger? It’s going to be ok Charles you heard it yourself.”

“No about earlier earlier...I haven’t exactly told Raven about us.”

“I figured, but it’s ok. No need to apologize.” Erik shrugs it off.

Charles was going to let it go, but honestly something has been bothering him for a while. “Um actually, I didn’t tell her because I don’t exactly know what to tell her. Not that we need to put a label on it, but we’re not exactly dating so it’s a little hard to say what we are…” Charles trails off because he doesn’t quite know what he’s getting at or what it is he wants. 

 

Erik understands completely, and truthfully he has been feeling the same way on the subject. He enjoys spending time with Charles and of course the sex is great, but he desperately wants them to be more. Just sitting there at the table feels so domestic and everything Erik has ever dreamed about even in light of the finger incident. However, there’s nothing he can do about it unless he were to tell Charles everything.

“I know, but I can’t give you an answer that will satisfy the both of us. If you want to stop seeing each other I completely understand.” Erik offers instead. 

Charles sighs and looks down realizing they haven’t even started eating yet. “No, it’s ok. Let’s not worry about it right now and eat because I’m starving.” He tries to lighten the mood with a smile and waits for Erik to dig in first before he does. 

“This is amazing.” Erik acts surprise to tease Charles, and even though he should be offended he is right. The turkey came out great and so did the rest of the food, thank goodness. 

They eat until they’re stuffed and ready for a nap. It’s when they’re just starting to fall asleep on the couch that Raven and Azazel come back.

 

“Let me see your hand.” Erik gestures to Azazel once they get seated around the table. 

“Not much to look at under all this bandaging.” Azazel holds his hand up so Erik can see. 

“He was all calm when it happened, but he cried when the doctor was cleaning it up.” Raven snickers, but brings him a plate of food before she gets hers.

“One: That is not true. And two: even if it were, you sliced my finger I think I’m allowed to cry a little.” Azazel defends himself.

“Anyways…” Raven rolls her eyes and sits down with her own food. “Doctor said he’ll be fine in 3 to 5 weeks, but he has to make sure he keeps it clean or it could get infected and then they’ll have to amputate the finger.”

“She did not say that last part.” Azazel mutters around some food.

“She didn’t have to.” Raven shrugs. “This is really good. We did good.” She gives Charles a hi-five. They have a moment of silence to enjoy before Raven is talking again. “So I was thinking as a way to make up for the finger slashing, we could invite everyone over to the house for Christmas.”

“Oh Raven no.” Charles cuts in immediately. “I know you mean well, but I’m sure the last thing they want to do is spend Christmas in that dusty old place. We don’t even know if they celebrate Christmas.”

“I don’t really, but what house are you talking about?” Erik asks intrigued and Raven gives him a big smile. 

“It’s our old childhood home down in Westchester New York, we usually spend Christmas there.” She explains and side eyes Charles. He hadn’t decided on what they should do for Christmas and didn’t if Erik celebrated, and because it’s so close to when Erik is supposed to leave Charles was going to plan around that. “I figured it’ll be fun and the more the merrier.” 

“We don’t really celebrate Christmas, but we’d love to if that’s alright with you Charles.” Erik answers for the both of them and looks to Charles.

“Why don’t you celebrate? If you don’t mind me asking?” Raven asks before Charles can answer though.

“I’m of Jewish descent and though my parents weren’t exactly practicing, we just never really celebrated.” Erik explains truthfully. 

“You don’t have to accept.” Charles offers Erik sincerely. The last thing he wants is to pressure them into hanging out in some old mansion during the holiday. He also worries that Erik will view him differently once he sees how he grew up.  “I was actually thinking about staying here this Christmas.”

“Ah Charles, it’s tradition.” Raven pouts. She wasn’t wrong. Regardless of how much they hated the place growing up, they’ve gone back every Christmas together to make much happier memories. 

“Well sometimes traditions can be brok-” Charles starts but then Erik is interrupting him. 

“I think it’ll be a great idea. I really haven’t been anywhere else but here.” 

“You wouldn’t mind driving 3 hours to watch us celebrate?” 

“Of course not.” Erik smiles. “In fact I might even get you a present, but I’m not promising anything.” He teases, but fully intends to get Charles something now. 

Charles takes a moment to think it over. On one hand he fears Erik will judge him, but on the other it’ll give them more time to spend together before he leaves. 

“Ok. If you really want to.” Charles sighs dismissively.   

“Oh I really want to.” Erik nods reassuringly. 

“I guess I could go too.” Azazel mutters even though sadly he knows his opinion doesn’t really matter anymore on the subject since Erik has already made up his mind.

“This is going to be so great!” Raven beams at everyone. 

Charles is hopeful, but he can’t shake the feeling that this is a bad idea.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise the next one will be better.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first time writing/posting fanfic ever. Sorry if it's garbage. But I'd like to give a big S/O to Julie, the best beta anyone could ever ask for. Thanks for helping and encouraging me with well, everything! Also the ratings is intended for future chapters, and I'm sure some of the tags will change as we go along. I do intend to post often. Also some characters are simply mentioned or seen in passing. Thanks for reading!!!  
> This work is entirely fiction. I do not own any rights to any of the characters or anything mentioned within the story, or anything that I used inspiration for.


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